Is 2025 the year of Crypto-AI, DeFi, or Stablecoins? The world's top 10 venture capital funds predict which sectors will boom and which will decline in the cryptocurrency market. Will investment capital in crypto return to its peak?
Venture capital (VC) investment in the cryptocurrency sector experienced significant growth in 2024, reaching $13.7 billion a 28% increase compared to the previous year. However, this figure has yet to surpass the all-time highs of prior years, despite positive market signals.
Looking ahead to 2025, the leading crypto-focused venture capital funds are cautiously optimistic. They agree that startups must demonstrate strong product-market fit and a substantial, active user base to attract investment in the coming year.
To gain deeper insights into the venture capital landscape for crypto in 2025, let’s explore perspectives from the world’s top 10 VC firms.
Dragonfly
Dragonfly anticipates that venture capital investment in crypto will grow in 2025, driven by a gradually easing regulatory environment in the U.S. and increased institutional capital inflows. The firm continues to focus on supporting exceptional founders with market-fit products, prioritizing sectors such as:
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)Scaling PlatformsCentralized Finance (CeFi)Stablecoins and Payments
Emerging areas like Crypto-AI and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are gaining attention but remain largely in the experimental stage.
Conversely, Dragonfly predicts a decline in investment in areas such as security, tokenization, and interoperability, as the focus shifts toward newer sectors. Decentralized social networks are also expected to face significant challenges due to scalability issues and lack of product-market fit.
Pantera Capital
Pantera Capital forecasts an increase in venture capital investment in crypto for 2025. However, they caution that the bull market cannot last indefinitely, emphasizing the importance of closely monitoring for signs of a slowdown in capital inflows.
The fund continues to maintain a broad investment focus within the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors, with particular interest in:
Crypto-AIDecentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs)Next-generation Layer 1 blockchains offering enhanced functionality at the application layer
Multicoin Capital
Multicoin Capital is expanding its investments in DeFi applications, particularly within the Solana ecosystem, which has outperformed Ethereum and Layer 2 networks on key on-chain metrics this year.
Predictions for 2025:
Solana’s Dominance: Multicoin Capital expects Solana’s applications and protocols to emerge as clear winners in 2025, continuing their upward trajectory.Ethereum Challenges: Ethereum may face further difficulties and could potentially enter a period of decline due to competition from faster and cheaper blockchains like Solana. If Ethereum cannot compete effectively, developers, users, and capital may migrate to alternative blockchains that better meet their needs.
Optimism on Stablecoins:
Multicoin Capital views stablecoins as a major technical and financial breakthrough. They predict stablecoins will become "giants" in 2025, driven by growing global demand for USD, with stablecoins providing the most efficient means of accessing the currency.
Coinbase Ventures
Coinbase Ventures expects to remain highly active in 2025, with sufficient capacity to seize market opportunities.
The firm will continue to invest broadly in the on-chain economy, focusing on areas where developers are dedicating time and effort. Coinbase Ventures is particularly interested in the application layer, where internet-scale applications are now becoming feasible due to advancements in infrastructure. Key focus areas include:
Payments and Finance via StablecoinsIntersection of Crypto-AIOn-chain Consumer Applications (such as social apps, gaming, and creative apps)Innovations in DeFi
Binance Labs
Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of Binance, is committed to supporting Web3, AI, and biotech startups regardless of market cycles, whether bullish or bearish.
While Binance Labs predicts a significant increase in crypto venture capital in 2025, they emphasize that their focus remains on the fundamental elements of a project, rather than getting caught up in market price fluctuations or hype.
According to Binance Labs, the most promising projects for success must meet the following criteria:
Practical ApplicationMarket FitStrong TeamSustainable Revenue Model
Would you like more details on Binance Labs’ current focus areas or recent investments?
Galaxy Ventures
Galaxy Ventures is optimistic about the growth potential of stablecoins and tokenization in 2025. Stablecoins, especially in the payments sector, continue to demonstrate strong market fit and remain a key investment focus for the firm.
Galaxy Ventures believes tokenization holds great promise, even though it has not yet achieved the same widespread adoption as stablecoins. The firm plans to continue exploring and investing in this space.
However, Galaxy Ventures is not very optimistic about the metaverse. They argue that the metaverse still lacks clear, practical applications, making it difficult for metaverse-related projects to attract significant investment in 2025.
Hashed Venture
Hashed takes a more cautious outlook for 2025. While recent statements about viewing Bitcoin as a Treasury asset signal a shift in institutional sentiment, the level of investment is unlikely to return to the peak levels of 2021-2022. However, this could change if a "black swan" event occurs in the macroeconomic or political landscape.
Hashed anticipates that the year 2025 will be influenced by factors such as:
Clarity on regulations in the U.S.Increased institutional activity in the Asian marketInfrastructure advancements enabling real-world application deployment
Additionally, Hashed warns of potential risks such as regulatory setbacks, macroeconomic instability, and geopolitical tensions that could hinder growth.
Investment Priorities for 2025:
Data InfrastructureEnterprise-level DeFi ApplicationsRegulated Stablecoin Payment SystemsCrypto-AI Infrastructure
These sectors show clear product-market fit, well-defined regulatory compliance roadmaps, and proven revenue potential.
Declining Investment Areas:
Speculative GameFi projects lacking sustainable economiesLayer 1 and Layer 2 protocols without differentiationConsumer DeFi applications in restricted regulatory regionsNFT platforms without clear utility or revenue models
Hack VC
Hack VC predicts that venture capital investment in crypto will increase in 2025, unless a "black swan" event occurs. The firm attributes this growth to supportive government policies for cryptocurrencies and the renewed interest of founders in Web3.
Hack VC is focusing on three main areas:
Crypto-AI: The integration of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI) to create AI systems with lower costs compared to traditional cloud services, leveraging decentralized computing networks.Infrastructure: Developing technology platforms for Web3, with a focus on scalability solutions, security, MEV (Maximal Extractable Value), and improving the user experience for decentralized applications (dApps).DeFi: Building a more efficient financial system, with an emphasis on stablecoin payments targeting the multi-trillion-dollar market.
However, Hack VC is less optimistic about NFTs, believing that most NFTs will lose value, except for blue-chip NFTs (those with high and stable value).
Portal Ventures
Portal Ventures predicts that the cryptocurrency market will regain momentum in 2025, although investment levels are unlikely to reach the peaks of 2021-2022 due to the unique economic conditions at that time.
The firm is particularly interested in "all-in-one" platforms that provide both foundational technology and application development, enabling projects to control the user experience and create practical, real-world applications.
Portal Ventures also believes that projects focusing on developing complex foundational technologies, such as zero-knowledge proofs, will struggle to attract investment due to a lack of clear customer bases and business models.
Blockchain Capital
Blockchain Capital expects investment levels to rise in 2025 as the market continues to grow. The firm is actively seeking opportunities, focusing on areas such as:
Stablecoin InfrastructureCreative Token Distribution ModelsDeFi Platforms Connecting Organizations and Individual Users
In general, the leading crypto venture capital funds are optimistic about the market’s growth in 2025, although they do not expect investment levels to reach the highs seen during the 2021-2022 period.
They emphasize the importance of carefully selecting projects, prioritizing those with a strong foundation, market-fit products, and strong development teams. This cautious approach, focused on fundamental factors, will likely be the key to attracting venture capital investment in 2025.
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