Crypto venture capital firms are soaring thanks to an industry-wide rebound last year, new financial disclosures from the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal. In a sector known for its volatility, crypto venture investors—which typically invest in both digital assets and blockchain startups—have experienced a roller coaster over the past few years. During the bull market of 2021, they raised record amounts of funding before suffering precipitous declines during the ensuing “crypto winter.”
But the industry’s fortunes have swung upwards again on a spate of good news, including the launch of crypto exchange-traded products, like spot Bitcoin ETFs, and the election of President Donald Trump, who embraced the sector after receiving a flood of political donations from crypto executives and their allies.
The new filings, which investment advisers must file under SEC rules, show the assets under management, or AUM, of firms—a barometer for how well their holdings have performed. The AUMs for top outfits like Polychain and Haun Ventures enjoyed double-digit percent increases from 2023 to 2024, with assets managed by Austin-based Multicoin rising by over 50%.
AUM isn’t a perfect metric to understand the underlying holdings for venture firms. It doesn’t reflect certain asset flows, such as new funding rounds; distributions of returns to investors; or capital calls, where a firm requests more of the committed capital from its LPs to make investments. Still, the financial disclosures demonstrate that leading crypto venture firms are continuing to grow amid a sector-wide boom.
The trend is only set to increase as Trump advances a pro-crypto agenda, including regulatory bills working their way through Congress. Still, uncertain macro conditions could hurt prices as investors reduce their risk profiles amid concerns around tariffs and market volatility.
Crypto bump
Fortune pulled the financial disclosures for six of the largest crypto venture firms: Electric Capital, Pantera Capital, Haun Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Polychain Capital, and Paradigm. Each experienced AUM growth of over 10%, with Electric and Multicoin both growing over 50%.
Representatives for Haun Ventures, Multicoin, Polychain, and Paradigm all declined to comment.
“Since 2013, Pantera has consistently outperformed traditional VC, and we are currently raising our fifth fund,” said Paul Veradittakit, a managing partner at Pantera.
“The markets were good to us,” said Avichal Garg, the managing partner at Electric. “It will fluctuate a lot in the coming years given how volatile the markets are.”
Crypto venture capital differs from traditional tech investing. While startups typically raise funding through selling equity stakes in their company, many blockchain startups have their own proprietary tokens and raise money either through selling those tokens, either directly or by means of a future purchase agreement.
Traditional VCs, meanwhile, must wait until their portfolio companies exit—typically through public offerings or acquisitions—before they can sell their stake, a process that typically takes seven years or more (they can also sell their stakes on private secondary markets to other investors). Crypto VCs can more quickly sell their token stashes after a cryptocurrency launches. That also means that many larger crypto firms have to operate as registered investment advisers, a special classification with the SEC that requires more robust financial disclosures, because they are dealing with liquid assets.
This dynamic, in part, has allowed crypto venture funds to raise massive rounds, as investors can enjoy more immediate returns, although venture funds also suffer from the downside risks of the volatility.
Despite the bear market of 2022 and 2023, crypto firms continue to raise capitalHaun Ventures is fundraising for its second fund with a target of $1 billion, and Paradigm announced an $850 million third fund in 2024.
Once a novelty, crypto firms have proven to have staying power, especially after weathering the collapse of FTX and subsequent fallout. Multicoin has ridden the highs and lows of Solana, experiencing a 20,287% increase in its assets from 2017 through 2021 before experiencing a 90% drawdown in 2022. The firm has since rebounded, with its AUM growing to nearly $600 million in 2024.
Correction, April 9, 2025: A previous version of this article misattributed a quote to Pantera’s head of marketing, Ping Chen. It should have been attributed to Paul Veradittakit.
