Altcoin News: PwC: Financing the Crypto Industry Is Increasingly Shifting
September 12, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Most of the cryptocurrency fundraising and acquisition transactions are currently underway in Asia and Europe, while the American region previously held the leading role, CoinDesk writes with reference to a new report from the PwC audit company.
According to the company, in the second quarter of 2019, 41% of global fundraising transactions took place in Europe, compared to 34% in the same period last year. The share of the Asian market in the second quarter jumped to 26%, while the US share fell from 51% last year to 28% in the current.
In the global context, the total number of transactions to attract financing and the amount of capital participating in them decreased by more than half from the maximum of $408 million recorded in the first quarter of 2018.
Nevertheless, the growth of Bitcoin, apparently, has a positive impact on related activities in this space — the volume of transactions increased from $166 million in the first quarter to $250 million in the second.
“The price of bitcoin is the bellwether for the industry and for the sentiment of investors. As the price of bitcoin has recovered, we see the sentiment has become more positive and have seen more activities in fundraising and M&A activities,” commented the results of the senior manager of the fintech team PwC Lucy Gazmararian.
The share of acquisitions taking place in the USA fell from 80% in the first half of 2018 to 48% in the second quarter of 2019. The combined share of Europe and Asia over the same period increased from 17% to more than 50%.
Since the beginning of 2018, the number of acquisition transactions in the cryptocurrency mining industry has significantly decreased, as investor interest has shifted to the development of blockchain infrastructure.
“Except perhaps for crypto mining, we are seeing capital flow to every sector of the crypto industry,” said Henri Arslanian, head of fintech and cryptocurrencies in Asia. “In particular, crypto exchanges as well as broader crypto trading and blockchain infrastructure companies.”
Author: Marko Vidrih
