Paradigm announces $850 million fund for early-stage crypto projects

Paradigm, a crypto-focused venture capital firm, announced a new $850 million fund.

Matt Huang, co-founder and Managing Partner of Paradigm, said in his announcement that the VC platform’s third fund will focus on crypto projects in the early development stages.

Reports that Paradigm was considering a third fundraise for crypto emerged in early April.

Paradigm calls for more support for crypto projects

Thursday’s announcement confirmed reports that Paradigm was eyeing an $850 million fund.

It’s an endorsement that puts the San Francisco-based tech investment firm at the forefront of its next crypto projects.

Paradigm is an early contributor to some of the top projects in the crypto industry today. Some of these projects include Unswap, the decentralized exchange pioneering AMMs; Optimism is a Layer 2 solution for the Ethereum network; and Flashbots, a project that defines the MEV concept.

The platform recently backed a $70 million funding round for BTC staking protocol Babylon.

“When we founded Paradigm in 2018, we believed that cryptocurrency would be one of the most important technical and economic shifts of the coming decades. Six years later, this belief has become even stronger,” Huang said.

The new fund aims to continue focusing on such early-stage projects.

Paradigm is also behind some major open source projects in the crypto space, including the popular Ethereum development tool Foundry and Ethereum execution node Reth.

Crypto is now a “main character” on the global stage

According to Huang, the crypto space is developing at a rapid pace; Bitcoin is making over $1 trillion as top blockchain networks like Ethereum and Solana scale with new innovations.

The global crypto market is also witnessing a marked shift in the adoption of stablecoins as new infrastructure enables more consumer applications.

Meanwhile, the number of crypto holders reaches hundreds of millions, and crypto stands out as the “main character” in one of the biggest election years.