- VCs are back backing crypto projects.
- Investors poured almost $1.2 billion into the sector in January, a 63% increase from 2024.
- Experts expect total investments to surge to $18 billion in 2025.
Venture capital giants are seizing on optimism that has sent crypto prices soaring.
Just weeks into 2025, investors including Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, and Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto unit have piled almost $1.2 billion into 79 projects in the crypto and blockchain sectors.
That’s a 63% increase from January 2024, according to DefiLlama data.
“It’s a new era for crypto, and VCs are excited by the next generation of startups being founded in the space,” Justin Barlow, venture partner at Faction VC and an angel investor, told DL News.
The data comes as PitchBook analysts told DL News they predicted that VCs will pour some $18 billion into the sector this year, up from the $9.9 billion yearly average of 2023 and 2024.
“There is still room to go in early-stage markets,” Alex Botte, partner at Hack VC, told DL News.
She noted that investments are still below the levels seen during the height of 2022 highs, but that investments may exceed those eventually.
This marks a change from previous years.
Large generalist VCs firms “mostly avoided the space” amid scandals and blowups from 2022, but this year will see investors return in force, Galaxy Digital said in a December report.
President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance is a key driver.
The industry and its backers expect regulators to ease up on their crypto crackdown and implement more sector-friendly laws.
“With a more favourable SEC, we expect to see fewer enforcement actions, more regulatory clarity, and an increased likelihood for blockchain businesses to be able to go public in the US,” Mike Giampapa, general partner at Galaxy Ventures, told DL News in December.
DefiLlama’s investment tracker doesn’t just track traditional VC raises.
For example, token sales like Trump-linked World Liberty Financial completed a public sale of 20% of its tokens — netting the project a sum of $300m million.
These were the 10 biggest raises in January:
Phantom
Amount raised: $150 million
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, a16z crypto and Variant.
Komainu
Amount raised: $75 million
Investors: Blockstream Capital Partners
Sygnum
Amount raised: $58 million
Investors: Fulgur Venture
VOOX
Amount raised: $50 million
Investors: Pinnacle Capital
D3 Global
Amount raised: $25 million
Investors: Paradigm
Irreducible
Amount raised: $24 million
Investors: Paradigm, Bain Capital Crypto, Fenbushi Capital, L2 Iterative Ventures, Robot Ventures, Anna Rose, Brendan Farmer, Daniel Lubarov, Sina Habibian, and Varun Srinivasan.
1Money Network
Amount raised: $20 million
Investors: F-Prime Capital, Galaxy Ventures, Hack VC, Tribe Capital, Portage, Ethereal Ventures, CMT Digital, Kraken Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, BitGo Ventures, Bing Ventures, MoonPay Ventures, CoinFlip, Bankless Ventures, Perry Creek Capital, A100x Ventures, VARIV, Anagram, Generative Ventures, Lvna Capital, Ambush Capital, Borderless Capital, Pharsalus Capital, Protagonist, gumi Cryptos Capital, Hexa Capital, Karman Ventures, and R3D3 Ventures.
Humanity Protocol
Amount raised: $20 million
Investors: Pantera Capital and Jump Crypto.
Elastos
Amount raised: $20 million
Investors: Rollman Management.
Dfns
Amount raised: $16 million
Investors: Further Ventures, Motive Ventures, Wintermute, Motier Ventures, White Star Capital, Hashed, Semantic, and Techstars.
SoSoValue
Amount raised: $15 million
Investors: Hongshan, SmallSpark, Mirana Ventures, and Safepal
Eric Johansson is DL News’ News Editor. Got a tip? Email at eric@dlnews.com.
