In the first nine months of 2021, global blockchain and crypto startup funding has nearly quintupled to $15 billion from $3.1 billion in all of 2020.

That’s according to the recent State of Blockchain report from CB Insights. The numbers speak for themselves: Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies are attracting so much funding this year, the market intelligence firm is calling 2021 “the year of crypto.”

There are now more than 6,500 cryptocurrencies on the market, according to Nasdaq, but the original, Bitcoin, remains the most commonly traded and is a tone-setter for the rest of the field. Crypto is mainly used for investment purposes now, but is getting closer to use in payment systems, particularly with stablecoins.

Blockchain is the technology underpinning crypto, as a “digital, distributed, decentralized public ledger that exists across a network,” according to Investopedia’s definition, and it has been used to secure and track transactions and more in financial services, medical care, personal identity, voting, gaming and other fields.

In the third quarter of 2021, global funding for crypto and blockchain startups reached an all-time high of $6.5 billion, up 712% from $799 million year over year. In the U.S. specifically, blockchain and crypto company funding in Q3 was nearly $3 billion, up 1,027% YoY from $263 million, according to the CB Insights report.

Globally, there have been 37 “mega-rounds” of funding of $100 million or more for crypto and blockchain startups so far this year, the report noted, compared with a total of only four such rounds in both 2020 and 2019.

The top 10 crypto and blockchain equity deals of Q3, according to the report, were:

1. FTX, which raised $1 billion in a series B funding round in July. The Bahamas-based crypto exchange and mobile trading platform provider was founded in 2018 and is valued at $18 billion.
2. Sorare, which raised $680 million in a series B funding round in September. The Paris-based gaming and digital trading card company was founded in 2018 is valued at $4.3 billion.
3. Genesis Digital Assets, which raised $431 million in a series A funding round in September. The New York-based industrial-scale Bitcoin mining data center operator was founded in 2013; no valuation was available.
4. Fireblocks, which raised $310 million in a series D funding round in July. The New York-based digital asset transfer platform provider was founded in 2018 and is valued at $2 billion.
5. Bitpanda, which raised $263 million in a series C funding round in August. Austria’s first unicorn, the Vienna-based crypto exchange and mobile trading app provider was founded in 2014 and is valued at $4.1 billion.
6. Dapper Labs, which raised $250 million in a series F funding round in September. The Vancouver, Canada-based, blockchain-enabled gaming company was founded in 2018 and is valued at $7.6 billion.
7. FalconX, which raised $210 million in a series C funding round in August. The San Mateo, Calif.-based crypto brokerage and digital asset trading platform provider was founded in 2018 and is valued at $3.8 billion.
8. Blockstream, which raised $210 million in a series B funding round in August. The Victoria, Canada-based digital asset storage and transfer services provider was founded in 2014 and is valued at $3.2 billion.
9. Mercado Bitcoin, which raised $200 million in a series B funding round in July. The Sao Paulo-based digital assets exchange platform was founded in 2013 and is valued at $3.2 billion.
10. Blockdaemon, which raised $155 million in a series B funding round in September. The New York-based institutional blockchain infrastructure platform provider was founded in 2013 and is valued at $1.3 billion.

What’s hot: service types

Among the various types of crypto services providers, crypto exchanges are attracting the most attention from investors, raising nearly $2 billion in Q3, CB Insights reported. That represents a 2,240% jump from the $84 million those same companies raised in Q3 2020.

Meanwhile, startups in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, a blockchain-based technology that uses unique data units, or tokens, to represent digital files such as documents or photos, have also been gaining rapidly. These companies have raised more than $2 billion so far this year, according to CB Insights, up 6,352% from the $31 million they raised in all of 2020.

Crypto custody and wallet providers have raised nearly $4 billion in funding so far in 2021, which CB Insights noted is 26% of all funding for crypto/blockchain startups and more than three times the total these companies raised in 2020.

Decentralized finance, or DeFi, startups have raised $2.1 billion in the first nine months of the year, already up 532% from the $329 million raised in 2020.

On that note, Offchain Labs, provider of a solution for secure Ethereum decentralized applications, nabbed the biggest equity deal among DeFi companies in Q3. The New York-based company, which was founded in 2018, raised $100 million in a series B funding round in August, and is now valued at $1.2 billion, according to the report.