What do the top 10 investment funds think about the crypto market in 2025?

Venture capital (VC) into the cryptocurrency sector saw significant growth in 2024, reaching $13.7 billion, an increase of 28% year-on-year. However, this figure has not yet been able to surpass the ATH of previous years, despite the positive signals of the market.

Looking ahead to 2025, the leading crypto venture capital funds show cautious optimism. They agree that startups need to demonstrate product and market relevance, along with significant actual users, to attract investment in the coming year.

To better understand the crypto venture landscape in 2025, let's analyze the shares from the world's top 10 hedge funds.

Dragonfly

Dragonfly predicts crypto venture capital in 2025 will grow, thanks to the easing regulatory environment in the US and an increase in capital inflows from institutions. Dragonfly remains focused on supporting outstanding founders, whose products are tailored to the market, including:

• Decentralized finance
• Scaling Platforms
• Centralized finance
• Stablecoins and payments

Emerging areas such as crypto-AI and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are gaining interest but are currently only in the experimental phase.

In contrast, Dragonfly predicts a decline in investment in areas such as security, tokenization and interoperability as the focus shifts to new areas. The decentralized social network is also forecast to face many challenges due to a lack of scalability and product-to-market fit.

Pantera Capital

Pantera Capital predicts crypto venture capital will increase in 2025. However, the bull market cannot last forever, so it is still necessary to keep a close eye on when investment flows begin to slow down.

Pantera Capital continues to invest extensively in the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector, with particular interest in:

• Crypto-AI
• DePins
• New Layer 1 Blockchain Types Enable More Functionality at Application Level

Multicoin Capital

Multicoin Capital is focused on expanding its investment in DeFi applications, particularly in the Solana ecosystem, which has made better strides than Ethereum and layer 2 in key on-chain metrics this year.

Multicoin Capital predicts this trend will continue and applications and protocols on Solana will be the winners in 2025.

Multicoin Capital thinks Ethereum will continue to face difficulties, possibly even falling into recession due to competition from Solana and other faster, cheaper blockchains. If Ethereum cannot compete effectively, developers, users, and capital will move to other blockchains that better meet their needs.

In addition, Multicoin Capital is also optimistic about stablecoins, considering it one of the technical and financial breakthroughs. Stablecoins are expected to become “giants” in 2025 due to the growing global demand for USD, and stablecoins are the most effective way to access the currency.

Coinbase Ventures

Coinbase Ventures is expected to be active in 2025 and has enough potential to capture market opportunities.

Coinbase Ventures will continue to invest extensively in the on-chain economy, focusing on areas where developers are spending time and dedication. The company is particularly interested in the application layer, where internet-scale applications have finally become feasible thanks to the development of infrastructure. Areas of focus include:

• Payment and financing with stablecoins
• Crypto-AI crossover
• On-chain consumer applications (such as social apps, games and creative apps)
• Innovation in DeFi

Binance Labs

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of Binance, is committed to supporting web3, AI and biotech startups regardless of rising or falling market cycles.

While crypto venture capital is expected to rise sharply in 2025, Binance Labs claims to focus on the underlying elements of the project, rather than getting carried away by price fluctuations or market inflation.

According to Binance Labs, projects with the highest potential for success need to meet the following criteria: practical application, market fit, strong team and sustainable revenue model.

Galaxy Ventures

Galaxy Ventures is optimistic about the growth potential of stablecoins and tokenization in 2025. Stablecoins, especially in the payments sector, continue to show market relevance and remain the investment focus of Galaxy Ventures.

Galaxy Ventures believes that tokenization is a potential field, although it is not yet as widely applied as stablecoins. They will continue to learn and invest in this area.

However, Galaxy Ventures is not optimistic about the metaverse. They argue that the metaverse does not yet have many obvious practical applications, so it will be difficult for metaverse-related projects to attract investment in 2025.

Hashed Venture

Hashed takes a more cautious view of 2025. Although recent statements about viewing Bitcoin as an asset by the US Treasury show a change in the mentality of institutions, investment levels are unlikely to return to the 2021-2022 peak. However, this could change if macroeconomic or political “black swan” events occur.

According to Hashed, 2025 will be influenced by factors such as:

• Regulatory clarity in the United States
• Increasing activity of organizations in the Asian market
• Infrastructure Advances Enable Real-World Applications Deployment

In addition, Hashed also warned of potential risks such as regulatory backlogs, macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions that could hamper growth. Hashed's investment priorities in 2025 include:

• Data Infrastructure
• Organization-level DeFi applications
• Managed stablecoin payment system
• Crypto-AI Infrastructure

These are all areas with a clear fit between product and market, a clear regulatory compliance roadmap, and proven revenue potential. In contrast, Hashed predicts a drop in investment in:

• Speculative GameFi projects lack sustainable economics
• Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols have no difference
• Consumer DeFi Applications in Restricted Jurisdictions
• NFT platforms don't have a clear utility or revenue model

Hack VC

Hacking VC predicts crypto venture capital will increase in 2025, unless “black swan” events occur. Hack VC claims that the government's support for cryptocurrencies and the founders' renewed interest in web3 are factors driving this growth.

VC hacking focuses on three main areas:

• Crypto-AI: Combine cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence (AI) to create AI systems at a lower cost than traditional Cloud services, thanks to the use of decentralized computer networks.
• Infrastructure:Develop the technology platform for web3, focusing on scalability, security, MEV solutions and enhancing the user experience for decentralized applications (DApp).
• DeFi:Build a more efficient new financial system, with a focus on stablecoin payments, targeting trillion-dollar markets.

However, Hack VC is not very optimistic about NFTs, arguing that most will lose value, with the exception of the blue-chip NFTs (which are highly valued and stable).

Portal Ventures

Portal Ventures predicts that the cryptocurrency market will be vibrant again in 2025, but the level of investment will not peak as it did in 2021-2022 due to the special economic backdrop then.

Portal Ventures is interested in “all-in-one” platforms that both provide platform technology, develop applications, help projects control the user experience, and create a variety of practical applications.

Portal Ventures believes that complex platform technology development projects, such as zero-knowledge, will be difficult to attract investment due to a lack of customers and an unclear business model.

Blockchain Capital

Blockchain Capital expects investment levels to increase in 2025 as the market continues to grow. Blockchain Capital is still looking for opportunities, focusing on areas such as:

• Stablecoin Infrastructure
• Innovative token distribution model
• DeFi platform connects organizations and individual users

Overall, the leading crypto venture capital funds are confident in the growth of the market in 2025, although they do not expect investment levels to peak in 2021-2022.

They also emphasize the importance of thorough project selection, prioritizing projects with a solid foundation, products that match market needs, and a strong team. It is caution and focus on these fundamentals that will be key to the ability of venture capital funds to “downsize” in 2025.