PwC report: the total number of crypto M&A deals dropped from 189 in 2018 to 114 last year, while the value of M&A deals dropped from $1.89B to $451M
Nathan DiCamillo / CoinDesk : Tweets: @coindesk Tweets: @coindesk : JUST IN: The value of crypto M&A deals last year dropped by a whopping 76 percent, according to a new report by @PwC - down from $1.9 billion in 2018 to $451 million in 2019. @Nate_DiCamillo reports https://www.coindesk.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands at the bottom of a documented cycle. A year earlier, PitchBook/JMP Securities counted crypto M&A surging over 200% with 115 deals announced by October and on pace for 145 by year-end (the 2018 deal-surge report) — yet PwC's full-year tally now shows only 114 deals closing in 2019, meaning the pipeline built during the 2018 boom largely evaporated rather than converted.
The significance is what came after: PwC's own follow-up found total crypto M&A value more than doubled to $1.1B in 2020 with average deal size jumping to $52.7M from $19.2M (PwC's 2020 recovery report), framing 2019 as the trough between two expansion phases rather than a permanent exit.
First-order effects
- Crypto companies that priced acquisitions off 2018's froth saw their exit window close — deal value collapsed 76% to $451M even as deal count fell only about 40%, so it was the large strategic transactions that disappeared.
Second-order effects
- With big-ticket deals gone, remaining buyers could acquire crypto assets at distressed prices, setting up the larger average check sizes ($52.7M vs $19.2M) PwC recorded once confidence returned in 2020.
Third-order effects
- The pattern — deal counts and values swinging an order of magnitude across adjacent years, later confirmed by PitchBook's $8.6B/267-deal 2025 tally (PitchBook's 2025 M&A record) — points to crypto M&A functioning as a lagging indicator of asset-price cycles, with consolidation waves clustering after each bust.
The trend: Crypto M&A runs in pronounced boom-bust cycles that trail token prices, with each downturn resetting valuations before the next consolidation wave.