Crypto mergers and acquisitions doubled to $1.1B in 2020, PwC Accounts

The average deal size in the crypto industry surged from $19 million final year to nearly $53 million in 2020, according to a new PwC report.

The consolidation of cryptocurrency-related companies surged hugely in 2020, hitting a fresh record in deal activity, according to a new report by professional services community PwC.

The entire volume of mergers and acquisitions from the crypto industry more than doubled from $481 million in 2019 to $1.1 billion in2020, PwC said in a Monday market overview, as noticed by Bloomberg.

The average deal size in crypto surged from $19 million in 2019 to nearly $53 million, together with crypto fundraising raising 33% in overall worth in 2020. Countries in the EMEA area saw a notable spike in the number of deals, although the Americas recorded a threefold increase in deal worth.

After new highs last year, deal activity in the crypto industry is likely to keep on rising in 2021. PwC global crypto leader Henri Arslanian explained that 2021 is"already on track to greatly surpass it from each single metric" as institutional players and high-profile investors are moving to the industry.

Alongside increased consolidation in crypto, PwC also predicted that the industry will become more institutionalized. The survey reportedly cited major gains in the crypto marketplace -- with Bitcoin hitting its all time high over $61,000 in mid-March -- and the growing adoption of central bank electronic currencies, stablecoins, decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens, also known as NFTs.

As mentioned previously by Cointelegraph, leading worldwide cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, FTX and Coinbase produced the top few acquisitions from the crypto industry in 2020.