Author: Yogita Khatri, Venture Capital
Compiled by: Bai Hua Blockchain
According to data from The BlockPro's capital dashboard, crypto venture capital financing grew by 28% year-on-year in 2024, reaching around $13.7 billion. Although this represents significant progress compared to 2023, the growth has not yet returned to previous peaks, despite the very bullish market sentiment this year.
Looking ahead to 2025, top crypto venture capitalists maintain a cautiously optimistic outlook. While most believe financing levels are unlikely to recover to the highs of 2021-2022, there is a clear consensus that startups with strong product-market fit and visible user adoption are most likely to attract capital in the coming year.
The following are insights on the 2025 financing outlook shared with The Block by leaders from Dragonfly, Pantera, Mult1C0in, Coinbase Ventures, BN Labs, and Galaxy Ventures.
1. Dragonfly: Betting on DeFi, CeFi, and Stablecoins
Dragonfly's general partner Rob Hadick told The Block that he expects significant growth in crypto venture capital financing in 2025, driven by a more relaxed US regulatory environment, potentially sustained Token price appreciation, and increased institutional capital. However, Hadick believes financing levels will not return to the 2021-2022 highs "for a long time," reflecting venture capitalists' caution about repeating past mistakes.
Dragonfly will continue to focus on backing founders with proven product-market fit, including in areas like Decentralized Finance (DeFi), scaling platforms, Centralized Finance (CeFi), and stablecoins/payments. While emerging sectors like crypto AI and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are also on the radar, Hadick considers these still in the "experimental" stage.
Conversely, Hadick said investment in categories like security, Tokenization, and interoperability may decline as the focus shifts to new industries. He also predicts challenges for decentralized social media due to lack of scalability and product-market fit.
2. Pantera: Bullish on Crypto-AI, DePIN, and New Layer 1 Blockchains
Pantera Capital general partner Lauren Stephanian told The Block that crypto venture capital financing is expected to grow in 2025 as investors are more willing to deploy capital with a US government supportive of crypto.
However, Stephanian noted that "the bull market won't last forever," so it remains to be seen "when investment deployment will start to slow down in the coming year."
Pantera will continue to invest broadly in crypto and blockchain, but is particularly excited about crypto-AI, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), and new Layer 1 blockchains supporting more application-layer functionality.
3. Mult1C0in: Continued Bullishness on the Solana Ecosystem
Mult1C0in Capital's current focus is on expanding its investments in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications, particularly within the Solana ecosystem. This year, Solana's on-chain key metrics have outperformed Ethereum and its Layer2 ecosystem. "We expect this trend to continue, and that Solana-based applications and protocols will be the big winners in the next cycle, as more users, capital, issuance, and activity migrate to the Solana ecosystem," Mult1C0in Capital co-founder and managing partner Kyle Samani told The Block.
Samani believes Ethereum will continue to struggle and may even face long-term decline, as it faces fierce competition from Solana and other faster, cheaper blockchains. "Unless Ethereum can catch up, developers, users, and capital will migrate to other chains that better meet their needs," he added.
Additionally, Mult1C0in is bullish on stablecoins. Samani described stablecoins as "one of the greatest technological and financial innovations of our lifetime."
"Stablecoins have the potential to become a force to be reckoned with in 2025," Samani said. "The whole world wants dollars, and stablecoins are the most effective way to get dollars. The design space is incredibly broad, and we're still relatively early in adoption."
4. Coinbase Ventures: Focusing on On-Chain Economics
Coinbase Ventures' Hoolie Tejwani told The Block that the firm expects to be "very active" in 2025 and beyond, with the ability to capitalize on market opportunities. The company is optimistic about regulatory progress in the US, particularly due to the crypto-friendly Trump administration and the pro-crypto Congress set to take office in January 2025.
Tejwani said Coinbase Ventures will continue to invest broadly around on-chain economics, focusing on "where the best and brightest builders are spending the most time." The firm is bullish on the application layer, believing that scalable internet-scale applications are finally becoming possible as infrastructure matures. Areas of interest include stablecoin payments and finance, the intersection of crypto and AI, on-chain consumer applications (like social, gaming, and creator apps), and DeFi innovations.
At the same time, Coinbase Ventures has not entirely abandoned infrastructure-layer investments, as Tejwani said there are still unresolved challenges and new opportunities in the tools space.
5. BN Labs: Prioritizing Fundamentals and User Adoption
As the $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of BN, BN Labs is a "evergreen" investor. The firm will continue to support Web3, AI, and biotech startups regardless of market cycles, according to BN Labs' investment director Alex Odagiu.
BN Labs expects crypto venture capital funding to remain strong in 2025, but will "focus on fundamentals" rather than price fluctuations or market hype. Odagiu emphasized that projects with real-world use cases, product-market fit, great teams, and sustainable revenue models are most likely to succeed.
6. Galaxy Ventures: Bullish on Stablecoins and Tokenization
Galaxy Ventures is optimistic about the growth potential of stablecoins and Tokenization in 2025. Partner Will Nuelle told The Block that stablecoins, especially in payments, have shown strong product-market fit and remain a focus area for capital deployment.
While Tokenization adoption has lagged stablecoins, Nuelle believes it holds tremendous potential for investors. Galaxy Ventures plans to further explore these opportunities. However, Nuelle is more pessimistic about metaverse-related projects, predicting that financing in this area will lag in 2025 due to a lack of clear adoption signals.
7. Hashed: Cautiously Optimistic for 2025
Hashed CEO and managing partner Simon Seojoon Kim maintains a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2025. He said that while Trump's comments about using Bitcoin as a US treasury asset suggest a potential shift in institutional sentiment, financing levels are unlikely to return to the 2021-2022 peaks. Kim added that this could change significantly in the event of a macro or political "black swan" event.
Kim pointed out that key drivers in 2025 may include clarity on the US regulatory framework, increased institutional activity in Asian markets, and advancements in infrastructure supporting real-world applications. However, he also warned that regulatory setbacks, macroeconomic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions could dampen growth.
Hashed's 2025 investment priorities include data infrastructure, institutional-grade DeFi applications, regulated stablecoin payment systems, and crypto-AI infrastructure. Kim believes these areas have clear product-market fit, compliance pathways, and reliable revenue potential. In contrast, he expects financing to decrease for GameFi projects lacking sustainable business models, undifferentiated Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols, consumer-facing DeFi applications in restricted regions, and NFT platforms without clear utility or revenue models.
Hashed plans to complete the fundraising for its third venture fund in the first quarter of 2025 and launch a new investment vehicle in Abu Dhabi to enable direct Token investments within the regulatory framework of that region. He said this strategic expansion is aimed at addressing the problem that existing domestic Korean funds are unable to make direct Token investments due to local regulatory restrictions, but did not disclose the target fund size.
8. HackVC: Betting on Crypto and AI, Infrastructure, and DeFi
HackVC co-founder and managing partner Ed Roman told The Block that unless a black swan event occurs, crypto venture capital funding is expected to "grow significantly" by 2025. Roman attributed this to crypto-friendly government policies and the rekindled enthusiasm of Web3 entrepreneurs.
HackVC primarily focuses on three areas: crypto and AI, infrastructure, and DeFi. Roman mentioned that the crypto space offers unique opportunities in the multi-layer AI stack due to GPU-based decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs). "This is a trillion-dollar market serving Web2 customers," he said.
In the infrastructure space, Hack VC is optimistic about scalability protocols, modular infrastructure, Web3 security, Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) improvements, and account abstraction technology. These innovations significantly enhance the Web3 technology stack and improve the user experience of decentralized applications (dApps).
In the DeFi domain, HackVC believes the current period represents a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to streamline the financial system." Roman sees stablecoin-based payments as the foundation of this system, with vast real-world application potential, and representing a "trillion-dollar market." However, he is less optimistic about NFTs, predicting that most NFTs will depreciate, with only top-tier assets maintaining value.
9. Portal Ventures: Supporting Integrated Platforms
Portal Ventures founder and managing partner Evan Fisher expects the "animal spirits" to return to the market by 2025, but financing levels will not reach the highs of 2021-2022, as those two years had a unique macroeconomic environment.
Fisher told The Block that Portal Ventures is bullish on platforms that provide both infrastructure and applications, as these can control the user experience and build practical use cases. However, he predicts 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.
10. Blockchain Capital: Focused on Multiple Areas, Including Stablecoin Infrastructure and DeFi
Blockchain Capital partner Kinjal Shah expects financing levels to rise in 2025 as the market remains strong. However, she believes the funding size will not return to the heights of 2021-2022, as that boom was influenced by broader macroeconomic trends.
Blockchain Capital will continue to maintain an opportunistic investment approach, focusing on stablecoin infrastructure, innovative distribution models, and DeFi platforms that connect institutional and retail users.
