Total blockchain and crypto related deals have surged more than 200% at an annualized rate this year according to data from PitchBook. 115 deals involving cryptocurrency or blockchain had been announced, on pace to hit 145 by the end of 2018. The count is up significantly from the 47 total deals completed last year, when bitcoin's price was surging to almost $20,000. Merger and acquisition activity for cryptocurrency companies has more than doubled in the past year amid a 54 percent slump in bitcoin prices, according to JMP Securities and data from PitchBook.

1. 200% Growth in Financing and M&A Activity in the Blockchain Sector
I. Critical Sector Trends
Total blockchain and crypto related deals have surged more than 200% at an annualized rate
this year according to data from PitchBook.1
115 deals involving cryptocurrency or blockchain
had been announced, on pace to hit 145 by the end of 2018. The count is up significantly from
the 47 total deals completed last year, when bitcoin's price was surging to almost $20,000.
Merger and acquisition activity for cryptocurrency
companies has more than doubled in the past year
amid a 54 percent slump in bitcoin prices,
according to JMP Securities and data from
PitchBook.
Ascento Capital has a current blockchain client in supply chain finance. The
incumbents in supply chain finance are realizing how blockchain will
fundamentally alter the sector and minimize their role in the sector and thus
are interested in acquiring our client. As new blockchain products are built by
startups and incumbents seek to catch up, more financing and M&A activity
will flood the sector in 2019 and beyond.
Another Ascento Capital client, a crypto wallet company, is seeking financing
or to be acquired to accelerate the adoption of its products which make
storing, sending, and spending cryptocurrency easy. As more products like
crypto wallets make blockchain easier to adopt on a mass scale, such as Stable
1
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/18/crypto-deal-makers-see-opportunity-in-bitcoins-price-slump.html
This report
will review:
* Critical
sector trends
* 2018
funding
activity
* 2018 M&A
activity
REPORT
HIGHLIGHTS

2. Blockchain Report December 2018
Page 2
Coin, a cryptocurrency designed to minimize the price volatility, and Tron, which speeds up and
lowers the cost of transactions, the sector will see more financing and M&A activity.
II. Recent Funding Transactions
With new financial and technological value from blockchain being unlocked, it is no surprise
that new capital is flooding into this space as shown by Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Worldwide Venture Investment2
Venture funds focused on blockchain are raising capital at record rates, i.e. on December 4,
2018, Global Blockchain Ventures announces the launch of $100,000,000 Blockchain technology
focused venture fund. Recent investment rounds in blockchain companies include funding for
Bitfury, CoinBase and Veem.
2
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/20/with-at-least-1-3-billion-invested-globally-in-2018-vc-funding-for-
blockchain-blows-past-2017-totals/

3. Blockchain Report December 2018
Page 3
Table 1: Selected Funding Transactions ($MM)
Date Target Investor Amount
11/26/18 Securitize Led by Blockchain Capital. Additional investors
include Coinbase Ventures, Global Brain, NXTP,
OK Blockchain Capital, and Xpring at Ripple.
$12.75
11/6/18 Bitfury USA, Inc. Dentsu Inc., Foyer S.A., Jabre Capital Partners
S.A., iTech Capital, Macquarie Group Limited
$80
10/29/18 StarkWare
Industries
Paradigm, Intel Capital, Sequoia, Atomico, DCVC,
Wing, Consensys, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin
Capital, Collaborative Fund, Scalar Capital,
Semantic Ventures
10/26/18 Coinbase, Inc. Wellington Management Group LLP, Tiger Global
Management LLC, Polychain Capital LP
$300
10/24/18 Algorand, LLC Union Square Ventures, Slow Ventures, China
Merchants Bank Co., Ltd.,
$62
10/10/18 Clearmatics Route 66 Ventures, TNF Capital, XTX Ventures $12
9/26/18 Veem Inc. Goldman Sachs Group, Pantera Capital
Management LP, GV, SVB Silicon Valley Bank
$25
9/25/18 Bitwala GmbH Earlybird Venture Capital GmbH & Co. KG,
Coparion GmbH & Co. KG
$5
9/24/18 CoinAlpha Bain Capital Ventures, Ironfire Ventures,
SharesPost, Stanford University’s StartX Fund
$3.50
9/5/18 Spacemesh Bain Capital, Collaborative Fund, Danhua Capital,
Polychain Capital, Coinbase, Inc.
$15
8/21/18 Shanghai Yiguan SB China Venture Capital, Danhua Capital,
Fenbushi Capital, Baidu Venture
N/A
8/14/18 Axoni Goldman Sachs, Nyca Partners, Andreessen
Horowitz, Citi, Coatue Management, Digital
Currency Group, F-Prime Capital, Franklin
Templeton Investments, Y Combinator
$32
8/13/18 AirTM Inc. BY Capital Management GmbH $7
8/2/18 SFOX, Inc. Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Social
Capital, Blockchain Capital
$23
7/18/18 Nervos Network Sequoia Capital China, Ceyuan, Matrix Partners
China, Unity Ventures
$28
5/15/18 Circle Internet
Financial, Inc.
Accel Partners, IDG Capital Partners, General
Catalyst Partners, Pantera Capital Management
$110
4/5/18 Chainalysis, Inc. Benchmark $16
3/6/18 Huoxing24 IDG Capital Partners, Future Capital Discovery
Fund, Blockchain Capital, Funcity Capital
$24
1/18/18 Ledger SAS FirstMark Capital, L.L.C., Draper Esprit plc, Cathay
Capital Private Equity, Draper Dragon
$75

4. Blockchain Report December 2018
Page 4
III. M&A Transactions
Blockchain is a young industry with many new smaller players. Many large technology players
have already acquired a smaller player or put their own money to work to develop their own
technology. Most M&A transactions in the sector are relatively small, less than $100 million in
transaction size.
Interestingly, as the price of cryptocurrency
decreases, M&A activity has increased. The industry
is in a "land grab" for innovative technology, access
to new markets, intellectual property, and talented
employees through M&A.
Recent M&A activity includes Squire Mining purchasing CoinGeek for $45 million, NXMH
acquiring Bitstamp for a rumored $400 million, BK Global buying Bithumb for $354 million, Tron
acquiring BitTorrent for $140 million and Coinbase acquiring Distributed Systems, Paradex, Earn
Global and Cipher Browser.
Table 2: Selected M&A Transactions ($MM)
Date Acquirer Target Enterprise Value
12/3/18 Squire Mining CoinGeek $45
11/1/18 Chainlink Cornell - Town Crier N/A
10/29/18 NXMH B.V.B.A Bitstamp Limited $400
10/12/18 BK Global Bithumb $354
10/2/18 Bitmain Telescope N/A
9/10/18 Lightyear (nka:Interstellar) Chain, Inc. N/A
9/4/18 Netobjex Servntire N/A
8/15/18 Coinbase, Inc. Distributed Systems N/A
7/31/18 Binance Trust Wallet N/A
7/31/18 Huobi Global Pantronics Holdings $0.24
7/31/18 Shanghai Bijie Enterprise DApps Platform, Inc. N/A
8/23/18 Tron BitTorrent, Inc. $140
7/12/18 OTCXN Ogg Trading, LLC N/A
5/23/18 Coinbase, Inc. Paradex Inc. N/A
4/16/18 Coinbase, Inc. Earn Global, Inc. $120
4/13/18 Coinbase, Inc. Cipher Browser N/A
2/26/18 Circle Internet Financial Poloniex, LLC $400
2/13/18 DMG Blockchain Blockseer $16

5. Blockchain Report December 2018
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IV. Parallel Path
Many start-ups are prime targets for the “big” players and additional financing. By choosing a
parallel path, seeking financing as well as an acquirer, a blockchain startup should have a choice
of a funding term sheet and a letter of intent from an acquirer at the end of the process.
An acquisition can rapidly accelerate the distribution of a company’s products, but the terms of
an M&A deal at an early stage can minimize value if not correctly negotiated. Early stage M&A
deals often include an earnout, which can be very beneficial or have no value, depending on the
terms. Please see Ben Boissevain’s article on earnouts on LinkedIn: How to Structure Effective
Earnouts.
Even though the blockchain companies scooped up
during mergers and acquisitions are startups in
infancy and have yet to prove themselves, many
acquirers are willing to look past these issues given
that the potential for future returns could far
outweigh these risks.
Contact Information
November 6, 2018 - Ben Boissevain, Managing Partner at Ascento Capital,
moderated the “Blockchain in Finance” panel at the M&A Advisors Summit 2018
held at the New York Athletic Club
Please do not hesitate to contact Ascento Capital for confidential discussions regarding your
company’s growth path forward.

6. Blockchain Report December 2018
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TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT BANKING
745 Fifth Avenue, Suite 500
New York, NY 10151
Ben Boissevain, Managing Partner
646-286-4589
ben@ascentocapital.com
www.linkedin.com/in/benboissevain/
30 years of corporate finance experience at firms such as White Case and Barclays Bank
Rohan Williamson, Associate
240-515-0806
rohan@ascentocapital.com
www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-williamson-43b89a78/
In-depth background in investment banking at firms such as Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse