Report: Paradigm, a venture capital firm in the crypto industry, aims to secure funding of up to $850M for their fund.

Crypto venture capital firm Paradigm is in talks to raise between $750 million and $850 million for a new fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. This comes as the crypto markets have rebounded in recent months. If Paradigm successfully raises $750 million, it would be the largest crypto raise since May 2022 when Andreessen Horowitz raised a record-breaking $4.5 billion. Paradigm’s previous fundraise was a $2.5 billion fund in November 2021, which was the largest cryptocurrency fund at the time. Last year, there were reports that Paradigm was aiming to raise a $1 billion fund. Notable investments by Paradigm include Coinbase, Fireblocks, Blast, Optimism, Uniswap, Gitcoin, and friend.tech. Paradigm also recently led a funding round for Merkle Manufactory, the firm behind decentralized social network Farcaster, pushing its valuation to over $1 billion. However, Paradigm also faced losses with its investment in FTX, which collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. Paradigm founder Matt Huang expressed regret for the damage caused to the ecosystem by the investment in FTX. Despite this setback, Paradigm’s total assets were only minimally affected. In terms of venture capital funding for crypto projects, there was a low point in October 2023 with only $445 million raised, the lowest monthly figure since December 2020. However, the last three months have seen consecutive monthly increases, with March recording $1.16 billion in funding. In 2024, the infrastructure and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors received the most funding, with $1.14 billion and $459 million, respectively. VC funding for nonfungible token (NFT)-related projects saw a significant drop from $3.4 billion in 2022 to $281.3 million last year. This decline in VC funding aligns with falling floor prices of major NFT collections, such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Despite challenges, the crypto industry continues to attract VC funding, with Paradigm at the forefront of investments in promising projects.