![](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/NSussman_Techcrunch_Exchange-multicolor.jpg?w=533\")
\n\t\t<\/div><\/div>\nWelcome to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It\u2019s inspired by the <\/em>daily TechCrunch+ column<\/em><\/a> where it gets its name. <\/em>Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Welcome to the weekend! We made it. Barely, I think, given how tired everyone sounds on the phone and over on Twitter. But we beat the working days back all the same, which means we get to lean back and enjoy ourselves for a minute. Yes, we\u2019re talking crypto today. Rejoice!<\/p>\n The race to fund crypto\u2019s future sure is expensive\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m impressed with the pace at which Coinbase has invested capital<\/a> into other companies in the larger blockchain market. It\u2019s a smart move, as the public U.S. company can disburse comparatively small sums (when stacked next to its revenue base) and buy both ownership and information access in startups, providing it with early-warning data regarding what\u2019s popping. Given that Coinbase is an obvious incumbent \u2013 and gatekeeper, to some degree \u2013 in the crypto market, its investments make sense.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s investing, and there\u2019s investing<\/em>. And it appears that the newly announced FTX fund is something more aggressive than what Coinbase has managed, despite its pretty quick cadence of deals.<\/p>\n FTX\u2019s fund crypto will total some $2 billion and, per interviews<\/a>, could be disbursed just this year<\/em>. That\u2019s a wild pace of investment, perhaps one reminiscent of how quickly a16z put its recent $2.2 billion crypto fund to work<\/a>.<\/p>\n A few questions:<\/p>\n These are interlinked questions. They sum to a simple confusion of mine regarding why it\u2019s so hard to build things in the crypto market that are useful. Coinbase and FTX exist toward the edges of the crypto world, shuttling money back and forth from the traditional economy and what could be its future. That they are investing is smart, but the amount of money they are willing to invest, along with what traditional venture capitalists are also lobbing at blockchain startups, has me somewhat confused \u2013 what\u2019s it all being spent on?<\/p>\n The two major blockchains are established, and hardly new (Ethereum was thought up in 2013 and launched in 2015; the Bitcoin whitepaper came out in 2008<\/em>); stablecoins exist and have a number of well, stable players; and a bunch of capital has gone to NFT marketplaces and a few crypto games. Some of which have even built modest player bases. But it feels a bit concentrated when we compare the amount of money flowing into the space to what we can see in terms of usable outcomes.<\/p>\n Institutional Investor reports<\/a> that $32.8 billion in total was invested into \u201ccrypto and blockchain technology businesses\u201d last year. Perhaps a lot of stuff built by that money is coming out soon that will blow us away, but now well north of a decade after Bitcoin said, \u201cHello, world,\u201d I still don\u2019t use any blockchain-powered apps or services day to day. Unless I am tinkering with one part of the crypto world for research purposes, of course.<\/p>\n And I spend more time online than I want to admit! Perhaps the new FTX fund will bring the mass-market blockchain product to market that isn\u2019t merely another vehicle for speculation. Let\u2019s wait and see, I suppose.<\/p>\n\n