Crypto and blockchain firms received $2.6 billion in investments in Q1 of 2021.

According to data from tech market intelligence platform CB Insights, over 129 blockchain and crypto companies received $2.6 billion of investments in Q1 2021. The figure is already greater than that in the previous full year, wherein blockchain firms only secured $2.3 billion in 341 deals. The crypto industry gained massive exposure starting this year as the leading cryptocurrency price, bitcoin, reached new all-time highs and attracted big names.

Several blockchain-based firms received capital inflows. 

Among the largest deals in the past quarter, the analytics firm cited recent capital inflows into Dapper Labs, the company behind the highly successful CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, crypto service provider Blockchain.com, and crypto lender BlockFi Inc. Indeed, Dapper Labs received $305 million in funding from investors such as Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant, with the entire round being led by investment firm Coatue. The funding put the startup’s valuation at a staggering $2.6 billion. As reported earlier, London-based Blockchain.com announced that it had raised $300 million in its Series C round of funding, which put the company’s valuation at $5.2 billion.

Several big names turned to cryptocurrency this year. 

Bockchain.com’s latest round came just one month after the company had raised $120 million, with Louis Bacon and Kyle Bass among its investors. This year institutional and enterprise investors began to pile into the crypto industry en masse. Big names such as MicroStrategy, Paul Tudor Jones, Grayscale, PayPal, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., and many others turned to cryptocurrencies. The most influential investment might have come from Tesla; it invested $1.5 billion in the leading cryptocurrency bitcoin earlier this year. Corporates have ostensibly been replacing dollars in their treasuries. Bitcoin is now seen as part of a risk-on inflation hedge. The comparison between and the leading cryptocurrency has promoted bitcoin as a means of storing value instead of a currency.