Alphabet – the holding co. of Google – invested the most amount of money into blockchain start-ups among publicly listed companies, according to a report published by market intelligence platform Blockdata.
The report analyzed the top 100 public companies investing in crypto and blockchain firms from September 2021 to mid-June 2022. Alphabet topped the list with investments of $1,506M, followed by Blackrock at $1,170M and Morgan Stanley at $1,110M.
“Forty corporations invested in companies in the blockchain/crypto space during this time. Samsung is the most active, having invested in 13 companies. UOB came in next with 7 investments, followed by Citigroup with 6 investments, and Goldman Sachs with 5.”
The search engine giant has focused on a more concentrated strategy, investing the entire corpus in just 4 companies, which include web3 gaming firm Dapper Labs and Bitcoin infrastructure provider Voltage. This is in contrast to last year, where the company opted for a more diversified portfolio, putting around $601M across seventeen web3 companies, including once again Dapper Labs, along with Blockchain.com, Ripple and Alchemy.
Like Google, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley have opted for a more concentrated effort, investing in three and two companies respectively during the same period. Meanwhile, Samsung was far more active, pouring $980M across thirteen start-ups.
The data also noted that companies favored NFT-based solutions over any other investments. Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS), scaling solutions, smart contract platforms and infrastructure providers were the other popular choices.
Traditional banks have increased exposure to blockchain companies and crypto, driven by increased client demand. Commonwealth Bank, Wells Fargo and United Overseas Bank were the leading investors.
