Crypto VC Paradigm Seeks Up to $850M Funding: Report

Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm is reportedly in talks to raise up to $850 million for a new fund.

Paradigm is in talks with investors to raise between $750 million and $850 million as crypto markets have rebounded in recent months, Bloomberg reported on April 3, citing people familiar with the matter.

The $750 million raise will be the largest for crypto since May 2022, when Silicon Valley-based VC firm Andreessen Horowitz ( a16z ) raised a record $4.5 billion.

If Paradigm completes the raise, it will be the largest since it raised $2.5 billion in funds at the peak of the last cycle's bull run in November 2021.

In September, The Information reported that Paradigm was planning to raise $1 billion in funding.

Paradigm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paradigm's most popular Web3-related investments include Coinbase, Fireblocks, Blast, Optimism, Uniswap, Gitcoin, and friend.tech.

Paradigm recently rated MerkleManufacturer – the decentralized social network Farcaster – as a unicorn, with a valuation exceeding $1 billion in Paradigm's funding round.

Paradigm also invested $278 million in the now-defunct FTX. Four days after the Sam Bankman-Fried exchange filed for bankruptcy, it wrote down its investment to zero.

Matt Huang, Paradigm's founder and managing partner, said the firm “deeply regrets investing in a company that has caused significant environmental damage.”

Huang said FTX constituted only a “small portion” of Paradigm's total assets.

Related: Crypto VC Funding Grows 53% in March, Optimism Wins Largest Share

VC fundraising for crypto projects fell from $445 million in October 2023 – the lowest monthly figure since December 2020, according to RootData.

However, the past three months have seen a series of monthly increases, with March seeing $1.16 billion, according to RootData.

The infrastructure and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors received the highest funding in 2024 at $1.14 billion and $459 million respectively.

Finable Token (NFT)-related VC funding was $281.3 million last year, a 92 percent drop from the $3.4 billion in 2022.

The decline in VC funding is accompanied by floor prices in major NFT clusters. The two largest NFT projects by market capitalization, CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, saw their respective floor prices drop 63% and 90% from October 2021 and May 2022, respectively.

Magazine: Planting Secrets for Male VCs: Helping Female Crypto Founders Explode