Google is the world’s biggest backer of cryptocurrency and blockchain companies.
The tech giant’s parent company Alphabet invested $1.5 billion into just four crypto startups since September 2021, according to a report from Blockdata.
The companies backed were digital asset custody platform Fireblocks, Web3 game company Dapper Labs, Bitcoin infrastructure tool Voltage and venture capital firm Digital Currency Group.
Samsung was the most active investor in the period, backing 13 companies with a total investment of $979.2 million.
BlackRock and Morgan Stanley invested more than Samsung – $1.2bn and $1.1bn respectively, but across just three and two rounds of funding.
Goldman Sachs was fifth with $698m across five investment rounds, followed by BNY Mellon ($690m in three rounds) and PayPal ($650m in four rounds).
A total of 61 blockchain or crypto companies – active in over 20 industries and 65 use cases – received funds across 71 rounds from 40 funders, the report said, with $6bn invested.
Of these, 19 companies offered some form of non-fungible tokens.
“Banks have started to increase their exposure to crypto and blockchain services given increased client demand,” the report stated.
“Traditional corporations [such as Samsung] are already supportive of the blockchain landscape, as indicated by the funding trend over the years.”