Article source: White Paper Blockchain
Author: Yogita Khatri, Venture Capital
Translation: White Paper Blockchain
According to funding dashboards from (The BlockPro), crypto venture funding grew by 28% year-on-year in 2024, reaching approximately $13.7 billion. Despite significant progress compared to 2023, this growth has not returned to previous peaks, even though market sentiment this year is very bullish.
Looking ahead to 2025, top crypto venture capitalists maintain a cautiously optimistic stance. While most believe that funding 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 will be most likely to attract capital in the coming year.
Here are the 2025 funding outlooks shared with (The Block) by leaders from companies such as Dragonfly, Pantera, Mult1C0in, Coinbase Ventures, BN Labs, and Galaxy Ventures.
1, Dragonfly: Betting on DeFi, CeFi, stablecoins, and more
Rob Hadick, a general partner at Dragonfly, told (The Block) that he expects significant growth in crypto venture capital funding in 2025, driven by factors such as a loosening regulatory environment in the U.S., potentially sustained token price increases, and an influx of institutional capital. However, Hadick believes that funding levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022 for "a long time," reflecting cautious attitudes among venture capitalists to avoid repeating past mistakes.
Dragonfly will continue to focus on supporting founders who excel in areas with proven product-market fit, including decentralized finance (DeFi), scaling platforms, centralized finance (CeFi), and stablecoins/payments. Although emerging areas like crypto AI and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are also on the radar, Hadick believes they are still in an "experimental" stage.
Conversely, Hadick stated that as the focus shifts to emerging industries, investments in categories such as security, tokenization, and interoperability may decline. He also predicts that decentralized social media will face challenges due to its lack of scalability and product-market fit.
2, Pantera: Bullish on Crypto-AI, DePIN, and new Layer 1 blockchains
Pantera Capital's general partner Lauren Stephanian told (The Block) that as investors are more willing to deploy capital into a pro-crypto U.S. government, crypto venture funding is expected to grow in 2025.
However, Stephanian mentioned that "bull markets do not last forever," so it is still necessary to observe "when investment deployment will begin to slow down in the coming year."
Pantera will continue to make extensive investments in the crypto and blockchain space, with a particular focus on crypto-AI, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and new Layer 1 blockchains that support more application layer functionalities.
3, Mult1C0in: Continuing to be bullish on the Solana ecosystem
Mult1C0in Capital is currently focused on expanding its investments in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, particularly within the Solana ecosystem. This year, key on-chain metrics for Solana have outperformed Ethereum and its Layer 2 ecosystem. "We expect this trend to continue, and applications and protocols on Solana will be among the big winners in the next cycle as more users, capital, issuance, and activity migrate to Solana's ecosystem," said Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner of Mult1C0in Capital, to (The Block).
Samani believes that Ethereum will continue to face challenges and may even fall into a prolonged 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 also optimistic about stablecoins. Samani described stablecoins as "one of the greatest technological and financial innovations of our lifetime."
"Stablecoins have the opportunity to become an undeniable force in 2025," Samani stated. "The whole world wants dollars, and stablecoins are the most efficient way to get dollars. Their design space is extremely broad, and we are still relatively early in the adoption curve."
4, Coinbase Ventures: Focused on the on-chain economy
Hoolie Tejwani, head of Coinbase Ventures, told (The Block) that the firm expects to be "very active" in 2025 and beyond, with the ability to seize market opportunities. The company is optimistic about regulatory progress in the U.S., particularly due to the pro-crypto Donald Trump administration and the pro-crypto Congress slated to take office in January 2025.
Tejwani stated that Coinbase Ventures will continue to make extensive investments around the on-chain economy, guided by "where the best and brightest builders are spending the most time and effort." The company is optimistic about application layers, believing that as infrastructure matures, applications capable of internet scale are finally becoming possible. Focus areas include stablecoin payments and finance, the intersection of crypto and AI, on-chain consumer applications (such as social, gaming, and creator applications), and DeFi innovations.
Meanwhile, Coinbase Ventures has not completely abandoned investments at the infrastructure layer, as there are still unresolved challenges and new opportunities in the tooling space, Tejwani added.
5, BN Labs: Prioritizing fundamentals and user adoption
As a venture capital and incubation arm of BN valued at $10 billion, BN Labs is a "evergreen" investor. Regardless of market cycle changes, the company will continue to support Web3, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology startups, its investment director Alex Odagiu told (The Block).
BN Labs expects that crypto venture funding will maintain strong momentum in 2025, but will "focus on fundamentals," rather than price volatility or market hype. Odagiu emphasized that projects with real-world application scenarios, product-market fit, strong 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. The company's partner Will Nuelle told (The Block) that stablecoins, especially in the payments space, demonstrate strong product-market fit and remain a key area for capital deployment.
Although the adoption of tokenization still lags behind that of stablecoins, Nuelle believes it has tremendous potential for investors. Galaxy Ventures plans to further explore these opportunities. However, Nuelle is pessimistic about metaverse-related projects, predicting that funding in this area will lag in 2025 due to a lack of clear adoption signs.
7, Hashed: Cautiously optimistic about 2025
Simon Seojoon Kim, CEO and managing partner of Hashed, holds a cautiously optimistic view for 2025. He stated that while Trump's remarks about making Bitcoin a U.S. Treasury asset suggest a potential shift in institutional sentiment, funding levels are unlikely to return to the peaks of 2021-2022. Kim added that if a macroeconomic or political "black swan" event occurs, this situation could change significantly.
Kim pointed out that key driving factors for 2025 may include clarity in the U.S. regulatory framework, increased institutional activity in Asian markets, and advancements in infrastructure supporting real-world applications. However, he also warned that regulatory setbacks, macroeconomic uncertainties, and geopolitical tensions could suppress growth.
Hashed's investment priorities for 2025 include data infrastructure, institutional-grade DeFi applications, regulated stablecoin payment systems, and crypto and AI infrastructure. Kim believes these areas have clear product-market fit, compliance pathways, and reliable revenue potential. In contrast, he anticipates reduced funding for GameFi projects lacking sustainable economic models, undifferentiated Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols, consumer-grade DeFi applications in restricted regions, and NFT platforms with unclear utility or revenue models.
Hashed plans to complete the fundraising of its third venture fund in Q1 2025 and launch a new investment vehicle in Abu Dhabi to enable direct token investments under the region's regulatory framework. He stated that this strategic expansion aims to address the inability of existing Korean local funds to make direct token investments due to local regulatory restrictions, but did not disclose the target fund size.
8, HackVC: 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 "grow significantly" in 2025. Roman attributes this to pro-crypto government policies and a rekindled enthusiasm among Web3 entrepreneurs.
HackVC primarily focuses on three areas: crypto and AI, infrastructure, and DeFi. Roman mentioned that due to GPU-based decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs), the crypto space offers unique opportunities below traditional Web2 clouds across multiple AI stacks. "This is a trillion-dollar market serving Web2 clients," he said.
In terms of infrastructure, Hack VC is optimistic about scalability protocols, modular infrastructure, Web3 security, maximum extractable value (MEV) improvements, and account abstraction technology. These innovations significantly enhance the Web3 tech stack and improve the user experience of decentralized applications (dApps).
In the DeFi space, HackVC believes that this is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to streamline the financial system." Roman views stablecoin-based payments as the foundation of this system, with broad real-world application potential, representing a "trillion-dollar market." However, he is less optimistic about NFTs, predicting that most NFTs will devalue, with only top assets maintaining their worth.
9, Portal Ventures: Supporting integrated platforms
Evan Fisher, founder and managing partner of Portal Ventures, expects the "animal spirits" of the market to return in 2025, but funding levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022, as the macroeconomic environment of those two years was unique.
Fisher told (The Block) that Portal Ventures is bullish on platforms that provide both infrastructure and applications, as these platforms can control user experience and create practical scenarios. However, he predicts that investments 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: Focusing on multiple areas, including stablecoin infrastructure and DeFi
Kinjal Shah, a partner at Blockchain Capital, expects that funding levels will rise in 2025 as the market continues to be strong. However, she believes that funding levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022, as the boom during that time was influenced by broader macroeconomic trends.
Blockchain Capital will continue to maintain opportunistic investments, focusing on stablecoin infrastructure, innovative distribution models, and DeFi platforms that connect institutions and retail users.
