The three largest investments in Bitcoin history have all come in 2015, thanks to Circle’s recent Goldman Sach led 50M funding round, which knocked Blockchain.info’s 30M funding round out of the top three.
There is a small caveat to the claim that all three of the largest Bitcoin investments have come this year. The largest investment in Bitcoin history, USD $116M into the relatively unknown and highly secretive 21 inc. is the subject of some debate. The funding round was done over a long period of time and in “stealth mode” it is likely that the funding round started in 2014, but it was nevertheless announced in 2015.
Still, for all the talk of Bitcoin’s continually stalling price, venture capitalist investors do not appear to have been scared off from the currency. In addition to the top three investments coming or being announced in 2015, five of the top six investments came in either 2015 or Q4 of 2014, with the lone exception being BitPay’s USD $30M funding round in May 2014.
The top six investments in Bitcoin history can be seen below:
BlockStream $21M 17/11/2014
BitPay $30M 13/3/2014
Blockchain $30.5M 7/10/2014
Circle $50M 30/4/2015
Coinbase $75M 20/1/2015
21 Inc. $116M 10/3/2015 [Announced]
The news should be encouraging for investors and users dismayed by the price. While venture capital investments do miss all the time, consistent and growing investments from different industries can only be seen as a good sign. Investments in Bitcoin companies have been coming from both the technology and financial industries, showing that the smart money is still very interested in Bitcoin and blockchain technologies moving into the future.
Combine that with consistent merchant growth and now Goldman Sachs approval, and the “moon” doesn’t look that far away. While we sit around hoping that the price will eventually exceed USD $300 again, the big dogs are putting their money where it really matters: services. When bitcoin services have reached something approaching their true potential, then maybe we will see another jump in the price.