Case in point, Bitcoin was a nonfactor in 2012 (hence the high "growth"), but VC for Bitcoin firms has dried up in 2015, with most Bitcoin startups either dying or pivoting to more generic financial instruments/blockchain tech.
year industry amount($M) 2012 Bitcoin 4.75000 2013 Bitcoin 54.47459 2014 Bitcoin 259.57000 2015 Bitcoin 189.40000
That's the issue. VC funding patterns are so long-tail and erratic that consolidating them misses that variation. It could be one startup accounting for the bulk of a funding, but we can't say the industry as a whole has grown.
Although with the BTC numbers you cite, that might not be relevant. Hmm.
189m seems low considering 21, inc. alone raised over $110m.