Venture capitalists' pain could be humanity's gain

HONG KONG, Dec 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) – At its 2021 peak, the aggregate market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies was nearly $3 trillion, roughly equivalent to the economic output of Africa. A record $630 billion poured into venture capital investments that year. Now, as interest rate hikes tear into alternative assets, money going into innovation is being reallocated. Global VC funding fell to $329 billion in the nine months to September 2022, per a report from CBInsights, down 27% year-on-year. The liquidity crunch exposed governance flaws, dumb ideas and solutions looking for problems: metaverses, non-fungible images of bored apes, flying cars. Other…