The digital asset exchange Huobi Global has created a new investment division focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web 3.0 projects, which highlights the interest of venture capital in the economy based on blockchain.
Baptized as Ivy Blocks, The new investment arm has more than $1 billion worth of crypto assets under management to deploy, a Huobi spokesperson confirmed. These funds have been used to “identify and invest in promising projects in the blockchain industry,” the company said.
In addition to financing, Ivy Blocks will offer various services to the selected projects, such as an asset management platform, a new blockchain incubator, and a dedicated research branch. The company’s asset management department will provide “liquidity investments” to help DeFi and Web 3.0 projects start operations, according to Lily Zhang, CFO of Huobi Global.
Ivy Blocks also announced on Friday that capricornfinance, an automated market maker built on top of the Cube blockchain, was the first project to receive funding.
The company’s focus on the DeFi sector comes at a time when the overall value of the sector has fallen by more than half since its peak. When measured in total value locked, or TVL, the DeFi sector is currently worth just under $133 billion, according to industry data. DeFi TVL peaked at $316 billion in December 2021.
The DeFi woes are a symptom of the so-called “crypto winter” that has swept the market since early 2022. Analysts say that market-clearing bear cycles are healthy because they often follow “irrational” periods in which asset prices soar.
Despite the overall downward trend, venture capital continues to flood the cryptocurrency scene, with investors prioritizing Web 3.0 and metaverse projects. As Cointelegraph Research reports, blockchain and cryptocurrency projects received $14.6 billion in equity investments in the first quarter alone. To put that in perspective, venture capital investment throughout 2021 was approximately $30.5 billion.
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