Original author: The Block
Compiled | Odaily@OdailyChina
Translator | CryptoLeo@LeoAndCrypto
According to The Block Pro's funding data, crypto venture capital funding is expected to grow 28% year-over-year in 2024, reaching around $13.7 billion, marking a significant improvement from 2023, although the growth rate will still be lower than the previous peak.
Looking ahead to 2025, top crypto venture capital firms are cautiously optimistic. While most believe funding levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022, there is a clear consensus that startups with strong product-market fit and high user adoption are most likely to attract capital in the coming year.
Here are the perspectives on the 2025 funding outlook shared by leaders from Dragonfly, Pantera, Multicoin, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs, and Galaxy Ventures with The Block, compiled by Odaily:
Dragonfly: Betting on DeFi, CeFi, and Stablecoins
Dragonfly general partner Rob Hadick told The Block that crypto venture capital is expected to see significant growth in 2025, driven by a more relaxed regulatory environment in the US, potential continued appreciation in token prices, and increased institutional capital deployment. However, Hadick believes funding levels will not reach the highs of 2021-2022 "for a long time," reflecting venture firms' cautious approach to new investments.
Dragonfly remains focused on supporting top founders in areas with strong product-market fit, including Decentralized Finance (DeFi), scaling platforms, Centralized Finance (CeFi), and stablecoins/payments. While newer areas like crypto AI and DePIN are gaining attention, they are still in the "experimental" stage.
In contrast, Hadick said investments in areas like security, tokenization, and interoperability may decrease as the focus shifts to new domains. He also predicted challenges for decentralized social media due to a lack of scalability and product-market fit.
Pantera: Bullish on Crypto AI, DePIN, and New Application-Focused Layer 1 Blockchains
Pantera Capital general partner Lauren Stephanian told The Block that crypto venture capital funding is expected to increase in 2025 as investors are more willing to deploy capital in a US government that is supportive of cryptocurrencies.
"The bull market can't last forever," so "when the slowdown in deployment will start next year" remains to be seen.
Stephanian said Pantera continues to invest broadly in crypto and blockchain, but is particularly interested in crypto AI, DePIN, and new Layer 1 blockchains that support more application-level functionality.
Multicoin: Continuing to Bet on the Solana Ecosystem
Multicoin Capital is focused on expanding its investments in DeFi applications, particularly on the Solana ecosystem, which has outperformed Ethereum and Layer 2 ecosystems on key on-chain metrics this year. Multicoin Capital co-founder and managing partner Kyle Samani told The Block: "We expect this trend to continue, with more users, capital, issuance, and activity migrating to the Solana ecosystem, making Solana-based applications and protocols the big winners of the next cycle."
Samani said Ethereum will continue to be "stuck in a dilemma" and "may even enter a prolonged decline" as it faces fierce competition from Solana and other faster, cheaper blockchains. He added: "Unless Ethereum can compete, developers, users, and capital will migrate to chains that better meet their needs."
Additionally, Multicoin is bullish on stablecoins, which Samani described as "potentially one of the greatest technological and financial innovations of our lifetime."
"Stablecoins have the potential to be a powerful force by 2025, as everyone in the world wants US dollars, and stablecoins are the most effective way to access US dollars to date. The design space is massive, and we are still relatively early on the adoption curve."
Coinbase Ventures: Focused on On-Chain Economics
Coinbase Ventures' Hoolie Tejwani told The Block that the firm expects to "be active in 2025 and beyond" and is prepared to seize market opportunities. The firm is optimistic about constructive regulatory progress in the US, thanks to a crypto-friendly Trump administration and a Congress taking office in January 2025.
Tejwani said Coinbase Ventures will continue to invest broadly in the on-chain economy, guided by "the best and brightest builders working tirelessly on projects." The firm is bullish on the application layer, as infrastructure matures, making internet-scale applications finally viable. Focus areas include stablecoin payments and finance, crypto AI, on-chain consumer applications (like social, gaming, and creator apps), and DeFi innovations.
Tejwani said Coinbase Ventures has not entirely abandoned the infrastructure layer, as there are still unresolved challenges and new opportunities in the tooling space.
Binance Labs: Prioritizing Fundamentals and User Adoption
Binance Labs, Binance's $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm, is a "evergreen" VC. Its investment director, Alex Odagiu, told The Block that the firm will continue to support Web3, AI, and biotech startups, regardless of market cycles.
Binance Labs expects crypto venture capital to be strong in 2025 but will "focus on fundamentals" rather than price action or market hype. Odagiu emphasized that projects with real use cases, product-market fit, strong teams, and sustainable revenue models are most likely to succeed.
Galaxy Ventures: Bullish on Stablecoins and RWA
Galaxy Ventures remains optimistic about the growth potential of stablecoins and tokenization in 2025. The firm's general partner, Will Nuelle, told The Block that stablecoins, particularly in the payments space, continue to demonstrate strong product-market fit and remain a key focus area for capital deployment.
While tokenized Real World Assets (RWA) lags behind the adoption of stablecoins, Nuelle believes tokenized RWA has massive potential. Galaxy Ventures plans to further explore these opportunities. Additionally, Nuelle is not bullish on the metaverse, expecting metaverse-related investments to lag in 2025 due to a lack of clear adoption signals.
Hashed: Cautious Outlook for 2025
Hashed CEO and managing partner Simon Seojoon Kim takes a cautious view of the 2025 outlook, stating that while Trump's comments on Bitcoin as an asset to pay off US debt suggest a potential shift in institutional sentiment, funding levels are unlikely to return to the highs of 2021-2022. Significant changes could occur if a macro or political black swan event occurs.
He noted that 2025 may be influenced by factors such as US regulatory clarity, increased institutional activity in Asian markets, and infrastructure advancements. Kim warned that regulatory setbacks, macroeconomic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions could dampen growth.
Hashed's 2025 investment focus includes data infrastructure, institutional-grade DeFi applications, regulated stablecoin payment systems, and crypto AI infrastructure - all of which Kim believes have clear product-market fit, regulatory compliance pathways, and verified revenue potential. In contrast, he expects funding to decrease for speculative GameFi projects lacking sustainable economics, undifferentiated Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols, consumer DeFi applications in restricted jurisdictions, and NFT platforms without clear utility or revenue models.
Hashed plans to close its third venture fund before the first quarter of 2025 and launch a new investment vehicle in Abu Dhabi aimed at facilitating direct token investments under the regulatory framework of the region. Kim said: "This strategic expansion addresses the limitations we face with our existing venture funds registered in Korea, which are restricted in their ability to make direct token investments due to local Korean regulations." Additionally, Kim declined to disclose the target fund size.
Hack VC: Betting on Crypto AI, Infrastructure, and DeFi
Hack VC co-founder and managing partner Ed Roman told The Block that unless a black swan event occurs, crypto venture capital funding is expected to "significantly increase" by 2025. Roman pointed to the renewed interest in Web3 among crypto-friendly management and founders as a driver of this growth.
Hack VC will focus on three main areas in 2025: crypto AI, infrastructure, and DeFi. Roman noted that due to decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) based on GPUs, crypto technology provides unique opportunities to support multi-layer AI stacks at lower costs compared to traditional Web2 clouds. He said: "In the Web2 space, this is a multi-trillion-dollar market."
In infrastructure, Hack VC remains bullish on scalability protocols, modular infrastructure, Web3 security, Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) improvements, and account abstraction technology. Roman stated that these innovations have greatly facilitated the maturation of the web3 stack and improved the user experience of decentralized applications (dApps).
Hack VC sees a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" in DeFi to simplify the financial system. Roman believes that stablecoin-based payments are the foundation of this system, and the vast real-world applications represent a "multi-trillion-dollar market." However, the firm is not optimistic about NFTs, predicting that most NFTs will depreciate, with only blue-chip NFTs retaining value.
Portal Ventures: Supporting Integrated Platforms Providing Infrastructure and Applications
Portal Ventures founder and general partner Evan Fisher expects "animal spirits" to return in 2025, but forecasts funding levels will not reach the highs of 2021-2022, as those years had a unique macroeconomic backdrop.
Fisher told The Block that Portal Ventures is bullish on platforms that provide both infrastructure and applications, allowing projects to control the user experience and build real-world use cases. He predicted that investment in heavier infrastructure projects, such as zero-knowledge development platforms and middleware, will slow down due to a lack of customers and sustainable business models.
Blockchain Capital: Focused on Multiple Areas, Including Stablecoin Infrastructure and DeFi
Blockchain Capital general partner Kinjal Shah expects funding levels to rise in 2025 as the market continues to strengthen, but she does not anticipate a return to the highs of 2021-2022, which were influenced by broader macroeconomic trends.
Blockchain Capital maintains an opportunistic mindset, focusing on areas such as stablecoin infrastructure, innovative distribution models, and DeFi platforms that connect institutions and retail investors.
