Ember Nuggets #6

What are Ember Nuggets?

Ember Nuggets are a weekly update with commentary from the investment team on what’s happening within the crypto market - news, developments, market trends, and more.

For more content like this, don't forget about our learn and earn program!

Nugget 1: Venture Funding loved Fintechs and specifically, Crypto in Q2’21

Venture funding for crypto/blockchain related companies totaled ~$1.24B during the period. Crypto made up 20% of fintech-related investments, up from 6.5% from 2019-2020. Crypto is attracting institutional investors across the board. Since Coinbase’s IPO in April, crypto has become a priority for many funds looking for exposure.

Areas that the most active funds are interested in?

It’s no surprise that it’s DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. The crypto trifecta leading growth, hype, and broad market interest this year. Notable projects: Uniswap, Crypto Punks and Axies.

Nugget 2: Tiger Global has been busy…

Tiger Global is an elite hedge fund based in New York, NY. It has been the top dealmaker in the VC space this year. It led BitSo’s $250M Series - C, Babel’s $40M Series - A and recently purchased $680M worth of Coinbase shares in August.

For a look at a few notable investments in the crypto space over the past year across various verticals, see the image below from The Block.

Nugget 3: Bitcoin’s Lightning Network reaches an all-time high

The Lightning Network is a layer-2 solution for Bitcoin that has been getting a lot of attention this year. It allows users to transact in Bitcoin in a faster, more cost-effective manner. Recent data from The Block suggests that capacity for the Lightning Network is nearing an all-time high of 3,000 Bitcoin ($124.5MM).

What does that mean?

It means users can transact (send/receive) around 3,000 BTC capacity worth on the network. To compare, at the beginning of the year the capacity for the network was less than 1,000 BTC. The capacity has grown ~3x over the past 9 months - supported by continued market adoption, especially in El Salvador.

Thank you for reading!

Harsharn Singh
Investment Associate | Ember Fund