Crypto M&A Deals Set a New Record in 2020, Surging to $1.1 Billion

The cryptocurrency bull run has been the most notorious headline highlighted in the last few months, but more figures are being watched beyond bitcoin prices. A new report released by Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) revealed that crypto merger and acquisition (M&A) deals skyrocketed in 2020.

2021 Is on Track to Surpass Last Year’s Numbers, PWC Says

Quoted by Bloomberg, the consulting firm pointed out that the crypto M&A sector more than doubled last year to $1.1 billion from 2019 figures. Geographically speaking, the United States is still taking the lead by itself, as deals taking place in the region accounted near $785 million.

Still, Europe and Asia together, as EMEA region, generated $303 million in crypto M&A deals, said PWC.

Henri Arslanian, global crypto leader of PWC, highlighted the fact that 2020 numbers posse a record for the sector. However, he added that 2021 is on track “to significantly surpass it from every single metric.”

The study says that findings suggest crypto’s market is increasingly expanding and confirms the widespread endorsement from large investors worldwide. Moreover, PWC foresees that the crypto industry would become “more institutionalized” at some point.

The firm backs up its claims with the all-time highs seen in the bitcoin (BTC) prices across the board this year, reaching levels above the $60,000 threshold.

Also, PWC believes that noise surrounding central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) helped to boost such deals.

Erasing Apocalyptic Forecasts Made in Mid-2020

Interestingly, the report is quite optimistic in comparison with the one published in mid-2020 by the firm. At that time, crypto M&A deals plummeted from $1.9 billion (2018) to $451 million (2019).

Moreover, PWC’s Arslanian was pessimistic in his forecast for 2020 numbers, citing coronavirus pandemic as a significant catalyst to wake up another wave of red numbers in terms of crypto deals:

“The crypto industry is not immune to the global headwinds and the number and value of crypto fund-raising and M&A deals may be impacted in 2020.”