May institutional investments hit $1B driven by Ethereum — KuCoin

Update June 14 and time 6:00 am UTC: This article has been updated to clarify the difference between institutional and retail investments. 

KuCoin’s research arm published a report highlighting that the crypto space saw over $1 billion in investments in May, a slight decrease compared to the previous month. 

On June 13, KuCoin Research said that 156 investments were publicly disclosed in May. In addition, the crypto exchange’s research arm reported that $1.02 billion in investment capital flowed into the space.

This represents a 10.61% increase compared to May 2023. However, the figure shows a 6.4% decrease when compared to April.

Ethereum, EVM blockchains and L2s maintain lead

Regarding investments, Ethereum, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains and layer-2 (L2) network projects maintained their popularity among institutional investors. Despite this, non-EVM chains like Bitcoin, Solana, Fantom and TON were also among the 15 most popular networks among investors in May.

Animoca Brands and OKX Ventures were the most active among investors last month. Animoca Brands engaged in 15 deals, while OKX Ventures invested in 11 projects. Cogitent Ventures, SNZ Holding and DWF Labs were also active in May with 10, 8 and 7 deals, respectively.

Related: Here’s how crypto game Notcoin onboarded over 30M users — founder

High FDV trend leads retail investors to alternatives

KuCoin Research believes that in May, retail investors turned to memes and celebrity tokens in response to the issues raised concerning the low float and high fully diluted valuations (FDV) trend in crypto.

KuCoin believes that tokens launching with high valuations and low circulating supplies left investors with “very limited room.” Because of this, they looked for alternatives. KuCoin Research wrote:

“Some market participants have turned their focus towards character meme or celebrity meme tokens, relatively obscure low-market-cap assets, and new narratives.”

The researchers pointed out that Notcoin (NOT) was one of the tokens that benefited from this shift in May. KuCoin said that Notcoin’s launch with all tokens from the beginning contributed to its growth last month.

On June 3, NOT became the fifth most-traded crypto , beating the trading volume of popular stablecoin USD Coin ( USDC ). The token's price reached a new all-time high of $0.02896 on June 2, pushing its market capitalization above $2 billion.

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