Venture Capital funds have poured about $30 billion into the cryptocurrency ecosystem this year, a figure that amounts to more than in all previous years combined. $30 billion almost quadruples the previous high of around $8 billion in 2018.

Polkadot, a network often described as a “blockchain of blockchains” for its underlying framework connecting various blockchains, has launched its first set of parachains, which are individual networks running in parallel while being supported by a main chain, called the relay chain.

The Uniswap community has approved a governance proposal that sought deployment of Uniswap v3 contracts on the Polygon chain. The approval comes in the form of an on-chain vote that received 99.3% approval.

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Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Venture Capital Funds Poured $30 Billion Into Crypto in 2021
• Polkadot Parachains Go Live
• Deployment of Uniswap v3 Contracts on Polygon Approved
• Chart of the Week: Bitcoin Halving Cycles
• Sponsored: Crypto.com - The World’s Fastest Growing Crypto App

Venture Capital Funds Poured $30 Billion Into Crypto in 2021

Venture Capital Funds have poured about $30 billion into the cryptocurrency ecosystem this year, a figure that amounts to more than all previous years combined. $30 billion almost quadruples the previous high of around $8 billion in 2018.

Spencer Bogart, general partner at San Francisco-based Blockchain Capital, one of the largest investors into the industry after financing over 120 companies since its inception in 2013, was quoted saying:

“We’ve moved beyond just digital gold. We’ve got financial services, art, gaming as a subcategory of NFTs, Web 3.0, decentralized social media, play-to-earn — all of that made investors think, `We don’t have enough exposure.’”

Funding data comes from Pitchbook, whose analyst Rob Le said investors are “funding anything and everything” in the cryptocurrency space, as the growth of specific sectors showed investors what they may be missing out on.

The $30 billion figure includes companies like Robinhood Markets and Revolut, which are revenue-generating fintech firms that offer crypto-related services among their offerings. Looking strictly at U.S. VC transactions, however, also shows outsize investing this year with $7.2 billion in deals, four times the previous record set in 2018.

Polkadot Parachains Go Live

Polkadot, a network often described as a “blockchain of blockchains” for its underlying framework connecting various blockchains, has launched its first set of parachains, which are individual networks running in parallel while being supported by a main chain, called the relay chain.

The milestone comes after some five years in development and of the completion of the first five parachain auctions, a system of crowd loans amassing large amounts of DOT, gathered from each blockchain’s community.

The first five parachains that went live – Acala, Moonbean, Parallel Finance, Aster, and Clover – focus on a variety of topics from decentralized finance to investments and loans. Polkadot is set to eventually offer 100 parachain slots on the main relay chain, with further slots being allocated in batches over the coming months.

Deployment of Uniswap v3 Contracts on Polygon Approved

The Uniswap community has approved a governance proposal that sought deployment of Uniswap v3 contracts on the Polygon chain. The approval comes in the form of an on-chain vote that received 99.3% approval.

The launch will be supported by a $20 million fund divided up into $15 million for long-term liquidity mining and $5 million for the overall adoption of Uniswap on Polygon. Other decentralized finance protocols like Curve and Aave have already been launched on the Polygon network.

Polygon has recently revealed it’s launching a $200 million fund to bolster social media with Web 3.0 and blockchain technology. Uniswap, it’s worth noting, has already launched its v2 contracts on two other layer-two scaling solutions, Optimism and Arbitrum.

Chart of the Week: Bitcoin Halving Cycles

As of 16^th December, Bitcoin has generated a return of 456% since its most recent halving event on May 11^th, 2020. The flagship cryptocurrency significantly outperformed equities markets during this period, with the S&P 500 returning c59.3%.

Despite Bitcoin’s significant performance, it has underperformed previous halving cycles from 2012 and 2016, in which it returned 4,974% and 1,355% respectively over a similar period of time.

It’s worth noting that as Bitcoin value grows its volatility drops. Nevertheless, some have suggested that Bitcoin underperforming previous cycles means that Bitcoin’s halving cycles are no longer an appropriate narrative.

Check out more of CryptoCompare’s research using the link below.

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