By Yogita Khatri , The Block
Compiled by: Yangz, Techub News
According to data from The Block Pro's Funding Dashboard, cryptocurrency venture capital funding increased 28% year-on-year to approximately $13.7 billion in 2024. Although this year has achieved significant growth compared to last year, the growth is relatively weak compared to the peaks in 2021 ($29 billion) and 2022 ($33.3 billion).
Looking ahead to 2025, top cryptocurrency venture capital firms are cautiously optimistic. While most agree that funding levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022, a clear consensus has emerged that startups with strong product-market fit and tangible user adoption are most likely to attract funding in the year ahead.
Here’s what leaders from Dragonfly, Pantera, Multicoin, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs, Galaxy Ventures, and more shared with The Block about their 2025 funding outlook.
Dragonfly: Betting on DeFi, CeFi, Stablecoins, and More
Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, expects cryptocurrency venture capital to see a significant increase in 2025, driven by factors such as a relaxed regulatory environment in the United States, the possibility of continued appreciation in token prices, and increased institutional capital deployment. However, Hadick believes that funding levels will not reach the highs of 2021-2022 "for a long time", reflecting the cautious attitude of venture capital institutions.
Dragonfly remains focused on backing top founders in areas with high product-market fit, including DeFi, scaling platforms, CeFi, and stablecoins/payments. While emerging areas like Crypto-AI and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are also on Hadick’s radar, he describes them as “experiments” at the moment.
Hadick said that as the focus shifts to newer areas, investments in categories such as security, tokenization, and interoperability are likely to decrease. He also predicted that decentralized social media will face challenges, citing a lack of scalability and product-market fit.
Pantera: Excited about Crypto-AI, DePIN and new L1
Lauren Stephanian, general partner at Pantera Capital, said in an interview that cryptocurrency venture capital funding is expected to increase in 2025 as investors become more willing to put their money into U.S. crypto-supportive administrations.
However, “the bull run can’t last forever,” Stephanian said, so it remains to be seen “when next year we’ll start to see a slowdown in deployments.”
Stephanian said Pantera will continue to invest broadly in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, but is particularly interested in Crypto-AI, DePIN, and new L1s that enable more application-level capabilities.
Multicoin: Still optimistic about Solana ecosystem
Multicoin Capital is focusing on expanding its investment in DeFi applications, especially those within the Solana ecosystem, which has outperformed Ethereum and L2 ecosystems on key on-chain metrics this year. Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner of Multicoin Capital, said, "We expect this trend to continue, and as more users, capital, token issuance, and activities migrate to the Solana ecosystem, applications and protocols based on Solana will become the big winners of the next cycle."
Samani said Ethereum will continue to decline and "may even fall into a long-term decline" because it faces huge competition from Solana and other faster and cheaper blockchains. He added: "Unless Ethereum can win the competition, developers, users and capital will migrate to other chains that better meet their needs."
In addition to the Solana ecosystem, Multicoin is also optimistic about stablecoins, which Samani described as "probably one of the greatest technological and financial innovations in our lifetime." Samani said, "Stablecoins have the opportunity to become a giant in 2025." "Everyone in the world wants dollars, and stablecoins are by far the most efficient way to get dollars. The design space is very broad, and we are still relatively early in the adoption curve."
Coinbase Ventures: Focus on the on-chain economy
Hoolie Tejwani, head of Coinbase Ventures, told The Block that the company expects to be "very active in 2025 and beyond" and is well prepared to seize market opportunities. Considering the Trump administration's support for cryptocurrencies and the new Congress that will take office in January 2025, the company is optimistic that the United States will make constructive progress in cryptocurrency regulation.
Tejwani said Coinbase Ventures will continue to follow the "best and smartest builders" and make extensive investments across the entire on-chain economy. The company is optimistic about the application layer, saying that Internet-scale applications are finally possible due to the maturing of infrastructure. In addition, Coinbase Ventures' key investment areas in 2025 include stablecoin payments and finance, the intersection of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, on-chain consumer applications (such as social, gaming, and creator applications), and innovations in the DeFi field.
At the same time, Coinbase Ventures isn’t giving up on the infrastructure layer entirely, as there are still unsolved challenges and new opportunities in the tooling space, Tejwani said.
Binance Labs: Prioritizing fundamentals and user adoption
As Binance's $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm, Binance Labs is an "evergreen" investor. Its investment director Alex Odagiu said that the company will continue to support Web3, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology startups regardless of market cycles.
Binance Labs expects cryptocurrency venture capital to remain strong in 2025, but will remain "focused on fundamentals" rather than price trends or market hype. Odagiu emphasized that projects with real-world use cases, product-market fit, strong teams, and sustainable revenue models are most likely to succeed.
Galaxy Ventures: Bullish on Stablecoins and Tokenization
Galaxy Ventures is optimistic about the potential for stablecoins and tokenization in 2025. Will Nuelle, general partner of the company, said that stablecoins, especially those in the payment field, will continue to show strong product-market fit and will remain a key area for capital deployment.
In addition, although tokenization has been late in terms of stablecoin applications, Nuelle believes that investors can see great potential in it. Galaxy Ventures plans to further explore opportunities in the field of tokenization. In addition, Nuelle is not so optimistic about projects related to the metaverse. He predicts that due to the lack of clear signs of adoption, funding for the metaverse will lag in 2025.
Hashed: Cautious about the outlook for 2025
Simon Seojoon Kim, CEO and managing partner of Hashed, was cautious about the outlook for 2025, saying that while Trump's comments about considering Bitcoin as a U.S. Treasury asset hinted at a potential shift in institutional sentiment, funding levels were unlikely to return to the highs of 2021-2022. However, the situation could change significantly if a macro or political black swan event occurs.
He noted that 2025 could be influenced by factors such as regulatory clarity in the U.S., growth in institutional activity in Asian markets, and real-world applications enabled by advances in infrastructure. As for downside factors, Kim cautioned that risks such as regulatory rollbacks, macroeconomic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions could dampen growth.
Hashed's investment priorities for 2025 include data infrastructure, institutional-grade DeFi applications, regulated stablecoin payment systems, and Crypto-AI infrastructure. Kim believes that these areas all have clear product-market fit, regulatory compliance paths, and mature revenue potential. In contrast, he expects less funding for speculative GameFi projects that lack sustainable economics, undifferentiated L1 and L2 protocols, consumer DeFi applications in restricted jurisdictions, and NFT platforms without clear utility or revenue models.
Hashed plans to launch its third venture fund in the first quarter of 2025 and launch a new investment vehicle in Abu Dhabi aimed at facilitating direct token investments under the region’s regulatory framework. “This strategic expansion addresses the limitations faced by our existing Korean-domiciled venture fund, where direct token investment capabilities are limited by local regulations,” Kim said. As for the target fund size, Hashed declined to disclose.
Hack VC: Betting on Crypto-AI, Infrastructure and DeFi
Hack VC co-founder and managing partner Ed Roman said that if no black swan events occur, Hack VC expects crypto venture capital funding to "significantly grow" in 2025. Roman believes that government support for cryptocurrencies and founders' renewed interest in Web3 will be key to promoting growth.
Hack VC plans to focus on three main areas in 2025, including Crypto-AI, infrastructure, and DeFi. Roman pointed out that with a decentralized network of physical infrastructure based on GPUs, cryptocurrency provides a unique opportunity for a multi-layer AI stack at a lower cost than traditional Web2 clouds. He said: "In Web2, this is already a trillion-dollar market."
In terms of infrastructure, Hack VC remains optimistic about scalability protocols, modular infrastructure, Web3 security, maximum extractable value (MEV) improvements, and account abstraction technology. Roman said these innovations have greatly matured the Web3 stack and improved the user experience of DApps.
As for DeFi, Hack VC hopes to seize the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to simplify the financial system. Roman believes that stablecoin-based payments are the foundation of this system, and widespread use in the real world represents "a multi-trillion dollar market." In addition, the company is not optimistic about NFTs, predicting that most NFTs will depreciate and only blue-chip assets will maintain their value.
Portal Ventures: Supporting comprehensive platforms
Evan Fisher, founder and general partner of Portal Ventures, expects "animal spirits" to return in 2025, but does not expect funding levels to return to the highs of 2021-2022 because of the unique macroeconomic background in those years.
Fisher said Portal Ventures is optimistic about platforms that provide both infrastructure and applications, which allow projects to control the user experience and build practical use cases. In addition, he expects investment in heavy infrastructure projects such as zero-knowledge development platforms and middleware to slow down due to a lack of customers and sustainable business models.
Blockchain Capital: Focusing on multiple areas including stablecoin infrastructure and DeFi
Kinjal Shah, general partner at Blockchain Capital, expects funding levels to rise in 2025 as the market continues to strengthen. However, she does not expect a return to the highs of 2021-2022 as this is influenced by broader macroeconomic trends.
Blockchain Capital remains opportunistic, focusing on areas such as stablecoin infrastructure, innovative distribution models, and DeFi platforms that connect institutions and retail investors.
