Blockchain
Top Cryptocurrency VCs Recover in 2023 as Multicoin Leads the Way with 180% Rise – DL News
- Top venture capital firms Paradigm, Polychain Capital, Multicoin Capital, Haun Ventures and Blockchain Capital all priced their assets higher in 2023 compared to the previous year.
- Multicoin posted the biggest gain among the funds analyzed by DL News, with its portfolio up 180%.
Venture capitalists are the lifeblood of cryptocurrencies, and fortunately for founders, some of the top VCs say their assets increased significantly last year compared to the year before, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The increases came alongside a surge in the broader cryptocurrency market.
Multicoin Capital, a venture capital fund with close ties to Solana, saw the value of its assets jump nearly 180%, to $3.81 billion in 2023 from about $1.36 billion in 2022.
Polychain Capital, founded by former Coinbase employee Olaf Carlson-Wee, saw the value of its fund nearly double to $5.04 billion in 2023 from $2.61 billion a year earlier.
And Blockchain Capital, which announced in September 2023, after raising another $580 million for further cryptocurrency investments, it said the value of its assets under management increased from nearly $1.74 billion to $2.36 billion.
Others that saw smaller increases include Paradigm, which saw its fund value surpass $10 billion; Haun Ventures, which valued its assets at more than $1.5 billion; and Andreessen Horowitz, whose huge fund, which counts cryptocurrencies among its investments, was worth $56 billion at the end of 2023.
Representatives from five of the venture capital firms mentioned above did not immediately respond to a request for comment DL Newsand a spokesperson for Multicoin declined to comment.
Cryptocurrency investments are making a comeback
The upswing in the fortunes of the largest cryptocurrency VCs mirrors the resurgence of the broader cryptocurrency market.
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In 2022, major cryptocurrency investors said their assets under management were substantially lower than in 2021, according to the newcomer.
Paradigm marked down its portfolio by 34% and Multicoin said its value fell by 85%.
And the total value of cryptocurrency gains fell to a monthly low of just under $300 million in July 2023 from over $7 billion in October 2021. according to data from DefiLlama.
More than a year and a half later, cryptocurrencies are back in business.
Bitcoin reached up an all-time high of more than $71,000 in March, according to CoinGecko, and cryptocurrency VCs invested about $1 billion in the sector in February.
More recently, however, VC enthusiasm has waned, with May only seeing raises of around $200 million.
And, despite renewed optimism for the sector, some cryptocurrencies have still failed to reach the levels of the last bull market.
In 2021, Paradigm said its assets under management were $13.2 billion, and in 2022 it said it employed 73 staff members. It now has just 59 employees.