Which tracks are the top crypto venture capital firms optimistic about in 2025?

Author: Yogita Khatri

Compiled by: Vernacular Blockchain

According to data from The Block Pro’s funding dashboard, crypto venture capital funding increased by 28% year-on-year in 2024, reaching approximately $13.7 billion. Despite significant progress compared to 2023, this wave of growth has failed to return to previous peaks, despite very bullish market sentiment this year.

Looking ahead to 2025, top crypto VCs remain cautiously optimistic. While most believe funding levels are unlikely to return to the highs of 2021-2022, there is clear consensus: those startups with strong product-market fit and visible user adoption will be the most likely to do so in the coming year. Attract capital.

Here are the 2025 funding outlooks shared with The Block by leaders from Dragonfly, Pantera, Mult1C0in, Coinbase Ventures, BN Labs, Galaxy Ventures and more.

1. Dragonfly: Betting on DeFi, CeFi, stablecoins and other fields

Rob Hadick, general partner of Dragonfly, said in an interview with "The Block" that crypto venture financing is expected to see significant growth in 2025, driven by factors including the relaxation of the U.S. regulatory environment, possible continued token price increases, and an increase in institutional capital. . However, Hadick doesn't think funding levels will return to the highs of 2021-2022 "for a long time," reflecting VCs' caution about repeating past mistakes.

Dragonfly will continue to focus on supporting founders who excel in areas of proven product-market fit, including decentralized finance (DeFi), scaling platforms, centralized finance (CeFi), and stablecoins/payments. Although emerging areas such as encrypted artificial intelligence and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are also on the radar, Hadick believes that these are still in the "experimental" stage.

Instead, Hadick said investments in categories like security, tokenization and interoperability are likely to decline as focus shifts to emerging industries. He also predicts that decentralized social media will face challenges due to its lack of scalability and product-market fit.

2. Pantera: Optimistic about encryption-AI, DePIN and new Layer 1

blockchain

Lauren Stephanian, a general partner at Pantera Capital, said in an interview with "The Block" that crypto venture capital financing is expected to grow in 2025 as investors are more willing to invest capital in the United States' pro-crypto government.

However, Stephanian mentioned that "the bull market will not last forever," so it remains to be seen "when investment deployment will start to slow down in the next year."

Pantera will continue to invest broadly in crypto and blockchain, but is particularly bullish on crypto-AI, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and new Layer 1 blockchains that support more application layer capabilities.

3. Mult1C0in: Continue to be optimistic about the Solana ecosystem

Mult1C0in Capital is currently focused on expanding its investments in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, particularly within the Solana ecosystem. This year, Solana has outperformed Ethereum and its Layer 2 ecosystem on key on-chain metrics. “We expect this trend to continue, with applications and protocols on Solana becoming big winners in the next cycle as more users, capital, issuance and activity migrate to Solana’s ecosystem,” said Mult1C0in Capital Founder and managing partner Kyle Samani told The Block.

Samani believes that Ethereum will continue to struggle and may even enter a long-term recession as it faces fierce competition from Solana and other faster and 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 a force that cannot be ignored in 2025,” Samani said. "The whole world wants dollars, and stablecoins are the most efficient way to get dollars. The design space is extremely broad, and we are still relatively early in the adoption curve."

4. Coinbase Ventures: Focus on the on-chain economy

Hoolie Tejwani, head of Coinbase Ventures, said in an interview with "The Block" that the institution is expected to be "very active" in 2025 and beyond and will be able to seize market opportunities. The company is optimistic about regulatory progress in the United States, especially due to the pro-cryptocurrency Donald Trump administration and a pro-crypto Congress set to take office in January 2025.

Tejwani said Coinbase Ventures will continue to invest broadly around the on-chain economy, guided by “where the best and most talented builders invest the most time and energy.” The company is optimistic about the application layer, believing that as the infrastructure matures, Internet-scale applications will finally become possible. Areas of focus include stablecoin payments and finance, the intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence, on-chain consumer applications (such as social, gaming and creator applications), and DeFi innovation.

At the same time, Coinbase Ventures is not completely abandoning infrastructure layer investments as there are still unsolved challenges and new opportunities in the tools space, Tejwani added.

5. BN Labs: Prioritize fundamentals and user adoption

As the US$10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of BN, BN Labs is an "evergreen" investor. The company will continue to support Web3, artificial intelligence and biotech startups regardless of market cycles, its investment director Alex Odagiu told The Block.

BN Labs expects crypto venture funding to remain strong in 2025 but will remain “focused on fundamentals” rather than price fluctuations or market hype. Odagiu emphasized that projects with real-world application scenarios, product-market fit, great teams, and sustainable revenue models will be most likely to succeed.

6. Galaxy Ventures: Optimistic about stablecoins and tokenization

Galaxy Ventures is optimistic about the growth potential of stablecoins and tokenization in 2025. Will Nuelle, a partner at the company, told The Block that stablecoins, especially in the payment field, have shown strong product-market fit and remain a key area for capital investment.

Although the adoption of tokenization still lags behind stablecoins, Nuelle believes it has huge potential for investors. Galaxy Ventures plans to further explore these opportunities. However, Nuelle takes a more pessimistic view of Metaverse-related projects, predicting that funding in the space will lag in 2025 due to a lack of clear signs of adoption.

7. Hashed: Cautiously optimistic about 2025

Simon Seojoon Kim, CEO and managing partner of Hashed, is cautiously optimistic about 2025. He said that although Trump's remarks about Bitcoin as a US fiscal asset hinted at a possible change in institutional sentiment, financing levels are unlikely to return to the peak of 2021-2022. Kim added that this could change significantly if a macro or political "black swan" event occurs.

Key drivers in 2025 are likely to include clarity on the U.S. regulatory framework, increased institutional activity in Asian markets and infrastructure advancements to support real-world applications, Kim noted. However, he also warned that regulatory setbacks, macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions could dampen growth.

Hashed’s 2025 investment priorities include data infrastructure, institutional-grade DeFi applications, regulated stablecoin payment systems, and crypto and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Kim believes these are areas with clear product-market fit, a path to compliance and solid revenue potential. In contrast, he expects financing to decrease for GameFi projects that lack sustainable economic models, undifferentiated Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols, consumer DeFi applications in restricted areas, and NFT platforms without clear utility or revenue models. .

Hashed plans to complete the raising of its third venture fund in the first quarter of 2025 and launch a new investment vehicle in Abu Dhabi to enable direct token investments within the region’s regulatory framework. He said that this strategic expansion aims to solve the problem of existing Korean domestic funds being unable to make direct token investments due to local regulatory restrictions, but did not disclose the target fund size.

8. Hack VC: Betting on encryption and artificial intelligence,

infrastructure and DeFi

Ed Roman, co-founder and managing partner of Hack VC, told The Block that crypto venture capital funding is expected to “grow significantly” in 2025, barring a black swan event. Roman attributes this to pro-encryption government policies and renewed enthusiasm among Web3 entrepreneurs.

Hack VC mainly focuses on three areas: encryption and artificial intelligence, infrastructure and DeFi. Roman mentioned that thanks to GPU-based decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs), the crypto space offers unique opportunities in multi-layer artificial intelligence stacks compared to traditional Web2 clouds. "This is a trillion-dollar market serving Web2 customers," he said.

On the infrastructure front, 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 technology stack and improve the user experience of decentralized applications (dApps).

In the field of DeFi, Hack VC believes that currently is "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to streamline the financial system." Roman regards stablecoin-based payments as the foundation of this system, has broad real-world application potential, and represents "a trillion-level market." However, he is not optimistic about NFTs, predicting that most NFTs will depreciate and only top assets will maintain their value.

9. Portal Ventures: Support integrated platform

Evan Fisher, founder and managing partner of Portal Ventures, predicts that the market’s “animal spirits” will return in 2025, but financing levels will not return to the highs of 2021-2022 because the macroeconomic environment in those two years was unique.

Fisher told The Block that Portal Ventures is optimistic about platforms that provide both infrastructure and applications, which can control the user experience and build practical scenarios. However, 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.

10. Blockchain Capital: Focus on multiple areas, including stablecoin

infrastructure and DeFi

Kinjal Shah, a partner at Blockchain Capital, expects funding levels to rise in 2025 as the market continues to be strong. But she doesn’t think funding will return to the highs of 2021-2022, as the boom then was influenced by broader macroeconomic trends.

Blockchain Capital will continue to invest opportunistically, focusing on stablecoin infrastructure, innovative distribution models, and DeFi platforms that connect institutional and retail users.