Google invests over $1.5bn into blockchain companies in 10 months
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has invested over $1.5 billion into blockchain-focused companies between September 2021 and June 2022.
This is according to data provided by Blockdata, a blockchain research firm, where 40 of the top 100 public companies, were ranked by the investments they have made into blockchain technology in the timeframe in question.
Alphabet poured the most amount of capital into the blockchain industry compared to any other public company. This is followed by BlackRock which invested $1.17 billion and Morgan Stanley which invested $1.11 billion in the same timeframe.
In an updated blog published by Blockdata on Wednesday, Alphabet (Google) was revealed as the investor with the deepest pockets compared to the top 40 public corporations investing in blockchain and crypto companies during the period. In total, 40 companies invested approximately $6 billion into blockchain startups between September 2021 and June 2022.
What you should know
- Alphabet has invested $1.5 billion into the space, concentrating on four blockchain companies including digital asset custody platform Fireblocks, Web3 gaming company Dapper Labs, Bitcoin infrastructure tool voltage and venture capital company Digital Currency Group.
- This is in stark contrast to last year when Google diversified its much smaller $601.4 million funding effort across 17 blockchain-based companies, which again included Dapper Labs, along with Alchemy, Blockchain.com, Celo, Helium and Ripple.
- Google’s increased investment into the blockchain industry is consistent with the other top 40 publicly traded companies, with $6 billion in total being invested during this time, compared to $1.9 billion between Jan. 2021 to Sep. 2021 and $506 million in all of 2020.
- Like Google, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock adopted a more concentrated approach investing in only two to three companies during the period. However, Samsung was by far the most active investor having invested in 13 different companies.
- The data also found that companies offering some form of nonfungible token (NFT) solutions have been the most popular investment. The report reads, “Many of these belong to industries such as gaming, arts & entertainment, and distributed ledger technology (DLT).”
- The remaining investments have been split between companies that provide Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS), infrastructure, smart contract platforms, scaling solutions and digital asset custody platforms.
The data also found that banks have started to increase their exposure to crypto and blockchain companies, driven by an increase in client demand for crypto services. Among the banks finding themselves on the top list of crypto investors are, United Overseas Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and BNY Mellon.
