Original author: The Block
Compiled by: Lawrence, Mars Finance.
According to funding data from The Block Pro, cryptocurrency venture capital funding grew by 28% year-on-year in 2024, reaching approximately $13.7 billion, marking significant progress compared to 2023. Although momentum remained strong this year, the increase is still below previous peaks.
Looking ahead to 2025, top cryptocurrency venture capital firms hold a cautiously optimistic outlook. Although most believe that financing levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022, a clear consensus has emerged: startups with high product-market fit and user acceptance are most likely to attract capital in the coming year.
Here are the 2025 funding prospects shared by leaders from companies such as Dragonfly, Pantera, Multicoin, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs, and Galaxy Ventures with The Block. Compiled by Odaily Planet Daily:
Dragonfly: Betting on areas such as DeFi, CeFi, and stablecoins.
Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, told The Block that cryptocurrency venture capital is expected to grow significantly in 2025, thanks to a loosening of the U.S. regulatory environment, potential appreciation of token prices, and increased deployment of institutional capital. However, Hadick believes that funding levels "will not reach the highs of 2021-2022 for a long time," reflecting the caution of venture capital firms regarding investments in projects for the new year.
Dragonfly continues to focus on supporting top founders in areas with high product-market fit, including decentralized finance (DeFi), scaling platforms, centralized finance (CeFi), and stablecoins/payments. While newer areas such as crypto AI and DePIN are gaining attention, they are still in the "experimental" stage.
Conversely, Hadick stated that as the focus shifts to new areas, investments in areas such as security, tokenization, and interoperability may decrease. He also predicts that decentralized social media will face challenges due to a lack of scalability and product-market fit.
Pantera: Bullish on crypto AI, DePIN, and new application-level Layer 1 blockchains.
Lauren Stephanian, general partner at Pantera Capital, told The Block that cryptocurrency venture capital funding is expected to increase in 2025 as investors are more willing to deploy funds in governments supportive of cryptocurrencies in the U.S.
"Bull markets cannot last forever," so "when we will start to see a slowdown in deployment next year" remains to be seen.
Stephanian stated that Pantera continues to invest extensively in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, but is particularly interested in crypto AI, DePIN, and new Layer 1 blockchains that support more application-level functionalities.
Multicoin: Continuing to be optimistic about the Solana ecosystem.
Multicoin Capital is committed to expanding its investments in DeFi applications, particularly in the Solana ecosystem, which has outperformed Ethereum and Layer 2 ecosystems this year on key on-chain metrics. Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner of Multicoin Capital, told The Block: "We expect this trend to continue, as more users, capital, issuance, and activity migrate to the Solana ecosystem, Solana-based applications and protocols will emerge as the big winners in the next cycle."
Samani stated that Ethereum will continue to be in a "catch-22" situation, "possibly even facing a prolonged decline," due to 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 also optimistic about stablecoins, which Samani described as "one of the greatest technological and financial innovations of our lifetime."
"Stablecoins have the opportunity to become a powerful force in 2025, as everyone in the world wants dollars, and stablecoins are the most effective way to acquire dollars so far. The design space is vast, and it is still relatively early in its adoption curve."
Coinbase Ventures: Focused on on-chain economy.
Hoolie Tejwani, head of Coinbase Ventures, told The Block that the company expects to be "active in 2025 and beyond" and is prepared to seize market opportunities. The company is optimistic about constructive progress on U.S. regulations, thanks to the supportive Trump administration for cryptocurrencies and a Congress that will take office in January 2025.
Tejwani stated that Coinbase Ventures will continue to make extensive investments in the on-chain economy, with investment guidance stemming from "the best and brightest builders working tirelessly on their projects." The company is optimistic about the application layer, as internet-scale applications are finally possible due to the maturation of infrastructure. Key areas include stablecoin payments and finance, crypto AI, on-chain consumer applications (such as social, gaming, and creator applications), and DeFi innovation.
Tejwani stated that, meanwhile, Coinbase Ventures has not completely given up on the infrastructure layer, as there are still unresolved challenges and new opportunities in the tools space.
Binance Labs: Prioritizing fundamentals and user adoption.
Binance Labs is a $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm under Binance, a "evergreen" venture fund. Its investment director Alex Odagiu told The Block that regardless of market cycles, the company will continue to support Web3, AI, and biotech startups.
Binance Labs expects strong momentum in cryptocurrency venture capital in 2025, but will still "focus on fundamentals," rather than price action or market speculation. 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 company's general partner Will Nuelle told The Block that stablecoins (especially in the payments sector) continue to demonstrate strong product-market fit and remain a focus area for capital deployment.
Although tokenized RWA still lags behind stablecoin adoption, Nuelle believes tokenized RWA has immense potential. Galaxy Ventures plans to further explore these opportunities. Furthermore, Nuelle is not optimistic about the metaverse space, predicting that investment funding in the metaverse will lag in 2025 due to a lack of clear signs of adoption.
Hashed: Cautiously optimistic about the outlook for 2025.
Simon Seojoon Kim, CEO and managing partner of Hashed, has a cautious outlook for 2025, stating that while Trump's comments about Bitcoin as an asset to pay off U.S. debt suggest a potential shift in institutional sentiment, funding levels are unlikely to return to the peaks of 2021-2022. Significant changes could occur if macro or political black swan events arise.
He pointed out that 2025 may be influenced by factors such as U.S. regulatory transparency, increased institutional activity in Asian markets, and advancements in infrastructure. Kim warned that risks such as regulatory setbacks, macroeconomic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions could suppress growth.
Hashed's investment focus for 2025 includes data infrastructure, institutional-grade DeFi applications, regulated stablecoin payment systems, and crypto AI infrastructure—Kim believes all these areas have clear product-market fit, regulatory compliance pathways, and proven revenue potential. In contrast, he expects funding for speculative GameFi projects with unsustainable economies, indiscriminate Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols, consumer DeFi applications in restricted jurisdictions, and NFT platforms without clear utility or revenue models to decrease.
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 region's regulatory framework. Kim stated: "This strategic expansion addresses the limitations we face with our existing registered venture funds in Korea, where the ability to invest directly in tokens is constrained by local regulations." Additionally, Kim declined to disclose the target fund size.
Hack VC: Betting on crypto AI, infrastructure, and DeFi.
Ed Roman, co-founder and managing partner of Hack VC, told The Block that unless a black swan event occurs, cryptocurrency venture capital funding in 2025 is expected to "increase significantly." Roman noted that the renewed interest in Web3 from management and founders supporting cryptocurrencies is a factor for 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 offers unique opportunities at lower costs for multi-layer AI stacks compared to traditional Web2 clouds. He said: "In the Web2 space, this is a market worth trillions of dollars."
In terms of infrastructure, Hack VC remains optimistic about scalability protocols, modular infrastructure, Web3 security, maximum extractable value (MEV) improvements, and account abstraction technologies. Roman stated that these innovations significantly advance the maturity of the web3 stack and improve the user experience of decentralized applications (dApps).
Hack VC sees a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to simplify the financial system through DeFi. Roman believes that stablecoin-based payments are fundamental to this system, with a large number of real-world applications representing "trillions of dollars in market." However, the company is not optimistic about NFTs, predicting that most NFTs will depreciate, with only blue-chip NFTs retaining value.
Portal Ventures: Supporting integrated platforms that provide infrastructure and applications.
Evan Fisher, founder and general partner of Portal Ventures, expects that "animal spirits" will return in 2025, but financing levels are not expected to return to the highs of 2021-2022, as the macroeconomic backdrop from those years was unique.
Fisher told The Block that Portal Ventures is optimistic about platforms that provide both infrastructure and applications, allowing projects to control user experience and build real use cases. 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.
Blockchain Capital: Focused on multiple areas, including stablecoin infrastructure and DeFi.
Kinjal Shah, general partner at Blockchain Capital, expects that as the market continues to strengthen, financing levels will rise in 2025. However, she does not expect them to return to the highs of 2021-2022, which were influenced by broader macroeconomic trends.
Blockchain Capital maintains an opportunistic spirit, focusing on areas such as stablecoin infrastructure, innovative distribution models, and DeFi platforms that connect institutions and retail investors.
