Last year marked historic growth in the cryptocurrency industry, including new milestones in crypto-related mergers and acquisitions. The total value of crypto M&A deals done within 2021 skyrocketed by almost 50x compared to 2020.
As stated in the latest PwC report, the growth of crypto-related deals value followed the general growth trend in cryptocurrency markets and jumped up by 4,846% last year.
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The average size of the deal increased by three times from $52.7 million to $179.7 million and was mostly driven by the numerous special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deals valued at over $1 billion. Contracts of this size were nowhere in the cryptocurrency market just a year ago.
“We saw larger and more developed crypto companies becoming more active in M&A, a sign that the crypto industry continues to mature and consolidation is beginning to occur,” says PwC.
Besides the high M&A activity of crypto and blockchain companies, crypto-focused venture capital funds (VCs) became the biggest driving force last year, which generated 26% of the total M&A deal activity.
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The most active region in crypto mergers and acquisitions appeared to be both Americas, with 10% growth (51%) compared to the previous year. Europe, the Middle East, and African (EMEA) countries accounted for a slight 2% activity decrease (33%) within 2021.
In terms of the value of the deals, both American ($24.5M) and EMEA ($25.4M) regions are almost even.
Most Popular M&A Sectors
Compared to previous years, crypto mergers and acquisitions split more evenly across different sectors, says PwC. According to their report, the major change addressed the cryptocurrency trading sector, where contract activity decreased from 43% to 27% in 2021.
Apart from that, other cryptocurrency sectors haven’t witnessed any significant changes. Mergers and acquisitions also occurred in crypto-related solutions (21%), blockchain and infrastructure (19%), and other (19%) sectors, while crypto mining-related contracts accounted for 15% of total M&As deals.
According to PwC, such diversification highlights the continuing maturity of the digital asset space and signals the broader adoption of cryptocurrency services.
