Start 7-day trial
All articles

Crypto funding 2022: 499 rounds, $9.56B, Q4 deals down 74%

By NAUT Research · · 8 min read

499 Crypto funding 2022 crypto venture rounds NAUT dates to 2022, from 233 in Q1 to 61 in Q4. Logos: Polygon, Yuga Labs, NEAR Protocol, OpenSea, Sui, Immutable X, Aptos, ZkSync, Wormhole.

NAUT tracks 499 crypto venture rounds dated 1 January to 31 December 2022 at 431 crypto companies, and crypto funding 2022 on NAUT's record totals $9.56B across the 487 rounds that disclosed an amount. Deal count fell every quarter, from 233 rounds in Q1 to 61 in Q4, while Shima Capital (48 rounds), GSR (44) and Coinbase Ventures (38) backed the most of them.

Data as of 14 November 2026, read from NAUT's funding records. A round counts when its close date (or its announce date, where no close date is stored) falls in 2022, it sits on a live crypto project row, and its type is a seed, pre-seed, series, strategic, private or plain funding round. That read found 862 rows of every type. 350 were left out as token sales and other labels, including 206 IDOs, 85 IEOs and 21 ICOs. 13 more came out by hand: 2 companies outside crypto (a biotech and a football media company) and 11 same-company rows repeated within 3 days. The median disclosed round is $5M. The 10 largest rows were put to outside reports: 8 amounts matched, and 2 were contradicted and left out of the top 10 table (Secret Network's $400M row and zkSync's January $200M row). Both stay in the totals, which they lift by $600M. The other 489 rounds were not put to a source check.

How far did crypto funding 2022 fall by quarter?

Q4 2022 closed 74% fewer rounds than Q1 and raised 83% less: 61 rounds and $868.1M, against 233 rounds and $5.07B. The median round stayed between $4.0M and $6.07M each quarter, so the fall came from fewer deals and fewer large rounds.

Quarter Rounds Sized Disclosed Median
Q1 233 230 $5,067.3M $4.9M
Q2 125 122 $2,202.0M $5.73M
Q3 80 77 $1,424.7M $6.07M
Q4 61 58 $868.1M $4.0M
  • March was the peak month: 84 rounds and $2,095.7M. December was the low: 19 rounds and $208.1M.
  • 2 shocks sit inside the slide. UST lost its dollar peg in May 2022, per The Block; NAUT's record shows 44 rounds in May, down from 84 in March. FTX filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware on 11 November 2022, per The Block.
  • Big rounds carried the year. 27 rows of $100M or more hold $5.37B, 56% of the disclosed total.

What were the 10 largest crypto funding 2022 rounds?

Polygon and Yuga Labs share the top at $450M each, both in Q1. 8 of the 10 rounds below closed in Q1 or early Q2, and the leads come from the cited reports, since NAUT's own lead flag is set only on Sui's round here. Ranked by amount raised. All dates are 2022, and the first 8 rows matched their cited report.

Date Company Round Raised Lead
7 Feb Funding round, sold as MATIC tokens $450M , then Sequoia Capital India
23 Mar Funding round at a $4B valuation $450M
6 Apr Funding round $350M
4 Jan Series C at about $13B $300M and
8 Sep Series B at $2B $300M
19 Feb Series D at $1.2B $200M , per CoinDesk
7 Mar Series C at $2.5B $200M
15 Mar Strategic round $200M
16 Nov Series C $200M Not checked
1 Apr Private round $187.5M Not checked
  • Round labels follow the reports where NAUT's type looked wrong. NAUT types Yuga Labs's raise as a seed round; the cited reports describe a $4B-valuation round, so the table says funding round.
  • 's raise was made by the company building it. The report names the developer of Sui as the raiser, valued above $2B.
  • 's dates differ by source. Reports of the $200M round ran in February 2022, and the company announced it on 30 March when it renamed itself Nova Labs. Reports also differ on the lead.
  • holds 2 rows of $200M on NAUT. The check found no $200M zkSync round in January 2022, and the report it found describes a $200M Series C announced in November, the row in this table. The January row is likely a repeat.

Which crypto investors backed the most 2022 rounds?

Shima Capital sits in the most, 48 rounds at 46 companies, ahead of GSR on 44. 415 of the 499 rounds list at least 1 backer on NAUT's record, across 560 different backers. Ranked by 2022 rounds on NAUT's record; Cos is companies backed.

# Backer Rounds Cos Q1 Q4
1 48 46 24 4
2 44 44 17 5
3 38 35 19 6
3 38 37 22 2
5 34 31 13 5
6 31 30 23 0
7 25 25 1 6
7 25 25 11 2
7 25 25 16 1
2022 crypto venture rounds per backer, NAUT's record
  1. Shima Capital48
  2. GSR44
  3. Coinbase Ventures38
  4. Animoca Brands38
  5. The Spartan Group34
  6. Alameda Research31
  7. Big Brain Holdings25
  8. HTX Ventures25
  9. LD Capital25

The 9 firms above sit in 308 round slots between them, and only Big Brain Holdings did more deals in Q4 than in Q1.

NAUT lists 2 of these firms under 2 rows each. Animoca Brands holds 33 rounds and Animoca Brands (Ventures) 7, which make 38 once the 2 shared rounds are counted once. HTX Ventures holds 25 and Huobi Ventures 1, the same round, so the union stays 25. Alameda Research has no round on NAUT's record after 6 September 2022, and FTX Ventures, with 16 rounds in 2022, has none after 28 October.

How did 2022 crypto venture capital split by stage?

Seed and pre-seed rounds made up 204 of the 499, or 41%, while Series B to D made up 23 rounds and $2.83B, 30% of the disclosed dollars. NAUT's stage is the round's own label, grouped.

Stage Rounds Disclosed Share
Seed 186 $1,383.2M 37%
Not stated 89 $2,629.8M 18%
Private 84 $754.3M 17%
Series A 51 $1,461.8M 10%
Strategic 46 $445.6M 9%
Pre-seed 18 $44.05M 4%
Series B 16 $1,498.3M 3%
Series C 5 $1,030.0M 1%
Series D 2 $300.0M 0.4%
Pre-Series A 2 $15.0M 0.4%

The seed line includes Yuga Labs's $450M, typed seed on NAUT, which is about 1 third of the seed dollars.

What this tells a BD team

  • The 2022 cohort is now 4 years past its raise. 431 crypto startups took venture money that year, and a company that raised in Q1 2022 has had time to spend it, raise again or wind down. Check each company page for a newer round before you pitch.
  • The biggest 2022 raisers sit in 1 table. NEAR Protocol, Aptos and Immutable X each took $200M or more in a single 2022 round.
  • Backer pages work as a map. Shima Capital's 48 and GSR's 44 rounds give 2 long lists of companies that took money that year.
How a BD team can work the 2022 list
  1. Pick a backerStart with Shima Capital's 48 rounds or GSR's 44 on their NAUT pages.
  2. Filter for size27 rounds of $100M or more hold $5.37B of the $9.56B.
  3. Check for a newer roundOpen each company page and look past 2022 for a later raise.
  4. Reach the teamSearch the company on naut.so for the team NAUT holds on it.

What this tells a founder raising

  • The firms that kept writing checks into Q4 2022 are on the record. Coinbase Ventures and Big Brain Holdings each backed 6 Q4 rounds, and GSR and The Spartan Group 5 each.
  • Some 2022 backers stopped. Alameda Research backed 23 rounds in Q1 and none in Q4, and FTX filed for bankruptcy on 11 November 2022. Treat its page as a past backer, and check a firm's newest round before you pitch it.
  • The median 2022 round was $5M. Q4's median was $4.0M across the 58 rounds that disclosed an amount.
How a founder can use the 2022 backers
  1. List the steady firmsCoinbase Ventures and Big Brain Holdings each backed 6 Q4 2022 rounds.
  2. Check they still investOpen the fund page and look for rounds after 2022.
  3. Size the askThe 2022 median was $5M, and Q4 ran at $4.0M.
  4. Find the partnerSearch the fund on naut.so for the team NAUT holds on it.

How to reach the decision makers

Every company and fund above links to its NAUT page. Search any company or fund on naut.so for the team NAUT holds on it, its backers or its portfolio, so you can go from a round to the person who signs. Search any name at naut.so.

Related reading on NAUT: Crypto funding statistics 2026: 327 rounds, $11.45B, 30 numbers and Shima Capital portfolio: 112 companies, median round $4.0M.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes. GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/shima-capital returns 1 fund with its team and portfolio rows, each carrying company, roundType, amountUsd, announceDate and isLead, so you can filter its 2022 deals by announceDate, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/yuga-labs returns 1 company with its team. Every call is a GET with Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY and costs 5 credits, documented at https://naut.so/docs/api with plans at https://naut.so/pricing (Essential is $49 a month for 3,000 credits). Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so you can start a 7-day trial and reveal them.

Crypto funding 2022 FAQ

How much did crypto startups raise in 2022?

NAUT tracks 499 crypto venture rounds dated 2022 at 431 companies, and the 487 that disclosed an amount total $9.56B on NAUT's record, read on 14 November 2026. Q1 2022 alone held $5.07B of it, and Q4 2022 $868.1M.

Who backed the most crypto startups in 2022?

Shima Capital backed the most 2022 crypto venture rounds on NAUT's record, 48 at 46 companies. GSR followed with 44, then Coinbase Ventures and Animoca Brands with 38 each.

What was the largest crypto funding round of 2022?

Polygon and Yuga Labs tie on NAUT's record at $450M each, raised in February and March 2022. Yuga Labs' round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), valued it at $4B, and reports describe Polygon's as a sale of MATIC tokens.

How did the FTX collapse show up in 2022 crypto funding?

Alameda Research backed 31 crypto rounds in 2022 on NAUT's record, 23 of them in Q1, and none after 6 September. FTX filed for Chapter 11 on 11 November 2022, and Q4 2022 closed 61 rounds, down from 233 in Q1.

Where can I find the teams behind the 2022 crypto startups and their contact channels?

On NAUT: search any company or fund that raised or invested in 2022 on naut.so for the team NAUT holds on it, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/yuga-labs returns 1 company with its team. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so you can start a 7-day trial and reveal them.

Sources

Browse all articles