Paradigm Raises $850 Million to Invest in Early-Stage Crypto Projects

Prominent crypto venture capital firm Paradigm has announced its third fund, raising $850 million dedicated to investing in early-stage crypto projects.

Founded in 2018, Paradigm was built on the belief that crypto will be one of the most important technical and economic shifts of the coming decades, and the firm has funneled investments towards a wide array of companies to help achieve that aim.

In a post announcing the fund, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang expressed that his team’s conviction has only grown stronger, stating that "crypto is now a main character on the world's political stage." This sentiment comes amid crypto legislation taking center stage in the American presidential elections, and Europe’s MiCA stablecoin rules set to take effect June 30.

In response to the changing landscape around crypto, Paradigm announced its intention in 2023 to engage in crypto policy, appointing Washington veteran Alex Grieve—who worked for former Speaker of the House John Boehner and later for the DTCC—as its government affairs lead.

Paradigm has a history of successful early-stage investments, including participating in the seed round for decentralized exchange Uniswap and leading last year’s Series B round for Flashbots. More recently, Paradigm led a $55 million Series A round for zero-knowledge proof network Succinct. Paradigm’s previous fund, launched in November 2021, raised $2.5 billion.

However, Paradigm's investment record hasn't been without controversy. The firm famously invested $278 million in FTX and FTX.US, with Huang appearing as a witness in the trial of co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

Paradigm was originally founded by Huang and Fred Ehrsam, who had previously co-founded Coinbase alongside Brian Armstrong. According to Paradigm’s website, areas of interest for potential portfolio companies include multi-chain infrastructure, Uniswap v4 hooks, crypto games and social apps, prediction markets, and more.

Huang did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Edited by Andrew Hayward