Analysts note a significant increase in crypto startups in Asia, Africa, and Europe in H1 2024. At the same time, North America’s previously dominant region is gradually losing popularity among crypto company founders due to regulatory uncertainty.
According to the Alliance report, the share of cryptocurrency startups launching in Africa, Asia, and Europe in H1 2024 increased. At the same time, the popularity of the U.S. and Canada significantly decreased.
About 31% of new startups in H1 this year were launched in Europe. The region’s attractiveness grew by about three percentage points since H2 2023. At that, European countries managed to overtake the U.S. and Canada, where the number of startups opening in 2024 decreased by 11 percentage points.
Around 27% of startups in H1 2024 were opened in Asia. The region boosted its popularity by about 5% in the six months. Africa’s share rose to 5.2%, the region’s best performance in three years.
Alliance analysts say that this trend directly reflects the desire of crypto startups to operate in regions with more loyal attitudes towards digital assets and a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
The report also indicates that Ethereum remains the dominant ecosystem for new startups. More than 62% of new projects are deployed on the Ethereum network. At the same time, about a quarter of the projects there in H1 2024 were built based on the L2 protocol Base, whose share doubled in six months.
Solana is the second most preferred blockchain for new projects — 17.3%. The figures in 2024 were the highest since mid-2022 when Solana sharply lost its popularity. Only 4.9% of new projects in H1 2024 were Bitcoin-based.
Analysts also noted that the percentage of startups creating infrastructure, DeFi projects, payment systems, and AI-based protocols increased this year. SocialFi initiatives also showed significant growth. The DeFi ecosystem still accounts for over a quarter of all protocols created — 26.1%. On the other hand, NFTs continue to decline in popularity, from 28% in H1 2023 to 23% in H2 2023 and 17.8% in H1 2024.
In addition, Alliance’s data shows that the number of startup founders exiting large tech companies declined by more than 15 percentage points since 2021. About 39% of startups were founded by one person, while 51% had teams of 2–5 people. Meanwhile, one in ten crypto startup founders were previously involved in some crypto projects. Among startup teams, 72% work entirely remotely.
Alliance’s report was prepared based on 3,000 annual applications submitted to the company’s startup accelerator program.
In Q4 2023, crypto startups attracted $1.9 billion in venture capital funding. At the same time, Bitcoin startups are of the most significant interest to venture capitalists.
