More Than $822 Million Raised for Blockchain Startups in First Half of 2019: Report

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A new industry report from Outlier Ventures indicates investors are still keen to take risks on new blockchain companies.

According to the venture platform’s research, blockchain startups raised more than $822 million across 279 deals in the first half of 2019. Of those deals, 159 happened at the seed stage, indicating that the space continues to attract new entrepreneurial talent.

The report notes that though the total raise figure “slumped for the first time,” the venture capital ecosystem still appears to be healthy.

The report also highlights the emergence of initial exchange offerings.

“Exchange-issued offerings going by the name of ‘IEOs’ have been taking off, indicating an interest from the retail market in still backing new token-based projects. Bitfinex claims to have raised $1 billion from a token sale for their exchange even as concerns around Tether’s redeemability looms in the market. IEOs have proven instrumental in helping startups with discovery, listings, and liquidity.”

Outlier Ventures, which is devoted to supporting blockchain technology, notes that while all eyes have been on Bitcoin’s splashy resurgence, there’s been less attention paid to the fact that hash power, transactions and node count have been steadily rising to their all-time highs from 2017.

“Signs of second-layer scaling are beginning to emerge. Lightning network’s capacity has grown 10 times this year with up to $10 million locked up in payment nodes. The decentralized finance ecosystem is beginning to imitate a small bank with $500 million locked up in varying applications.”

The blockchain development industry has also shifted from testing new code in private environments to a more open-source environment, according to the report.

“JP Morgan and EY [Ernst & Young] have both released open code towards making transactions on Ethereum private. Bank consortiums have been collectively working towards issuance of a digital currency much like stable tokens.”

You can check out the full report here.