Galaxy Asset Management raised $113 million for a new crypto venture fund that could bring significant new capital for cryptocurrency startups building new use cases.
Billionaire Michael Novogratz’s new venture will invest in early-stage crypto startups, mainly focused on cryptocurrency software, infrastructure and financial applications.
The new fund, called Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP, aims to initially invest in 30 companies and will continue raising funds until it reaches the $150 million target, which is expected to happen by 2025 at the latest, according to a statement shared with Bloomberg.
The $113 million could mean a significant financial lifeline for cryptocurrency startups and help the next big crypto protocol emerge.
Galaxy has previously invested in popular protocols like Ethena and Monad.
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Blockchain will be used for most of global transaction settlement in a few decades — Galaxy
Galaxy is one of the most prominent institutional investors in the crypto space, with a bullish long-term view.
Blockchain technology could be adopted for the majority of the world’s payment settlements in the future, according to Mike Giampapa, a general partner at Galaxy, who told Bloomberg:
“Our macro view is blockchains will be utilized to settle the majority of transactions… It’s a one-, two-decade transition that we are betting on.”
As part of Galaxy’s bet on the future of blockchain, the new fund will invest between $3 million to $5 million on each individual project.
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VC interest is returning to the crypto space
After artificial intelligence (AI) startups absorbed most of the venture capitalist (VC) interest for the past few months, VC interest in cryptocurrency is starting to recover.
In a positive sign of returning VC interest, Paradigm raised $850 million for its third fund that will invest in early-stage crypto and blockchain startups, the VC firm announced on June 13.
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.
VC firm Pantera Capital is also 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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