Venture capital firm Paradigm has closed a third fund to invest in crypto and blockchain-based projects at an early stage.

According to an announcement on June 13, the VC firm has completed an $850 million investment fund, making it one of the largest crypto fund raises in history. Paradigm has been discussing the new fund for the past few months following the rebound in crypto markets.

“When we founded Paradigm in 2018, we believed that crypto would be one of the most important technical and economic shifts of the coming decades. Six years later, that belief has only gotten stronger,” said Paradigm’s co-founder and managing partner, Matt Huang.

Paradigm is an investor in several notable crypto companies, including Coinbase, Fireblocks, Blast, Optimism, Uniswap, MakerDAO, Chainalysis, MoonPay, Gitcoin and Friend.tech, to name a few. The firm also invested $278 million in the now-collapsed crypto exchange FTX. In November 2022, it wrote down its investment to zero.

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Speculation about the new fund’s size has been ongoing for months. In September 2023, The Information reported that the firm was targeting a $1 billion raise. A few months later, in April, Bloomberg reported that Paradigm was discussing with investors  the prospects of raising between $750 million and $850 million.

The new fund is Paradigm’s largest raise since it closed a $2.5 billion fund in November 2021.

Venture capital investments have increased significantly in crypto and blockchain startups. According to data compiled by Galaxy Research, investors injected $2.49 billion across 603 deals in the first quarter of 2024, up 29% in funding and 68% in deal volume.

Another venture firm raising capital for a new crypto fund is Pantera Capital. The company is reportedly seeking more than $1 billion for a new fund that would offer exposure to a “full spectrum” of blockchain assets. The fund is scheduled for launch in April 2025.

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