Things are not as they seem in the investment world. We have a false image of the greatness of venture capital. What is behind all the failing crypto projects and why can’t even venture capital get it right?
In essence venture capital (VC) is a company or investment firm that provide financial support to small, emerging companies with the potential for significant growth. Usually, a venture capital firm get a stake in the company, and they provide additional resources like management expertise and industry connections to help the company succeed. At first glance it sounds like it’s a given success for a small company when they get support from a venture capital firm. It’s a Dragons Den scenario in many ways. However, the success rate of venture capital investments is notoriously low. In fact, 63% of startup failures occur in the tech industry, and 75% of venture capital-backed startups fail. Being successful in business is difficult even with capital and know-how. Blockchain companies face an even tougher road to success.
Since Bitcoin was released the staggering amount of 80,000 blockchain projects have launched. However according to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology only 8% of them are still active and the average lifespan is only 1.22 years. Gartner estimates that only 5% of blockchain projects make it to production, and 90% of those will need to be replaced within two years to remain competitive. The statistics give us a sobering view of the crypto industry. We can easily conclude that it’s smart to invest in the biggest crypto projects that have been around for multiple years.
But what are the reasons why blockchain companies struggle?
Firstly, the industry is in an early-stage and lack of adoption is a problem. Many crypto companies are struggling to guide themselves in an unclear regulatory setting. In the US, crypto companies can suddenly be dragged into court by authorities for unclear reasons because the regulatory landscape is still being created. Intense competition between crypto companies is another reason for projects failing. The crypto space is difficult to predict as its still in many ways hype driven and not only the most sound and useful coins win the market race. Funding issues and technological difficulties are also a significant contributor to the fail rate of crypto companies. Few companies survive the freezing cold crypto winter that we are in the middle of. They are forced to cut spending when markets are down, and venture capital is in many ways the only way to succeed. Another likely reason for the huge fail rate in the crypto space is that its surprisingly easy to launch your own crypto token and many unserious people are eager to get their hands on some crypto cash. There are thousands of poop coins that really stink. However, building a solid crypto project that stand the test of time requires a high level of skill and knowledge and is a time-consuming process. No wonder that most crypto projects fail.
It may seem crazy, but venture capital firms continue to pour billions into the space and clear regulatory guidelines are being created. Most money will clearly be lost but some companies will win big time. Clearly even big money gets it wrong when it comes to crypto investments.
No wonder it’s a high-risk and high-reward game.