PANews reported on May 15 that according to Cointelegraph, on May 14, Dan Tapiero, CEO of crypto venture capital firm 10T Holdings, pointed out at the Consensus conference in Toronto that too many crypto startups are pursuing valuations far beyond their revenues, making it difficult for venture capitalists to obtain returns. Tapiero said: "For some reason, founders and CEOs believe they should raise funds at 50 to 80 times their revenue. This makes it difficult for us to create returns for liquidity providers." Tapiero revealed that his firm has rejected over 200 projects due to high valuations, including the bankrupt FTX, BlockFi, and Celsius. 10T Holdings' investment criteria are for enterprise valuations above $400-500 million, with a price-to-sales ratio not exceeding 10 times.
Despite concerns about valuation bubbles, PitchBook data shows that crypto venture capital transactions in the first quarter of 2025 increased by over 100% quarter-on-quarter to $6 billion. Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead, who was also discussing at the event, suggested that venture capitalists adopt an "equity + token" portfolio investment strategy, with 86% of the projects his firm invested in becoming profitable, and 22 becoming unicorn enterprises.
