According to a new research from PwC, one of the largest accounting firms in the United States, the total value of crypto mergers and acquisitions increased by about 5,000 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year, as first reported by Bloomberg.
Companies completed more than three times as many mergers and acquisitions in 2019 than they did in 2020. Bloomberg stated that the average size of a merger or acquisition in the industry increased to around $180 million in 2021, up from about $52 million the year before, owing in part to the 2021 special purpose acquisition company or SPAC boom.
Around 51% of those transactions took place in the Americas. The $1.2 billion acquisition of BitGo, a digital asset trust and security company, by crypto asset management Galaxy Digital was one of the year’s biggest deals. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, was another big buyer in 2021, buying up crypto wallet business BRD and Israel-based Unbound Security, which devised ways to send crypto tokens more securely. Last year, Coinbase purchased at least 13 businesses.
Some of these purchases have been made possible by venture capital firms pouring money into the crypto business. According to PitchBook, venture capitalists spent $30 billion on crypto investments globally in 2021, with $7 billion spent in the United States.
