Paradigm Raises Record-Setting $2.5B Venture Fund
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Paradigm Raises Record-Setting $2.5B Venture Fund

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2 years ago

Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam's VC firm was reportedly planning to raise $1.5 billion, suggesting growing excitement around crypto and acceptance that it is here to stay.

Paradigm Raises Record-Setting $2.5B Venture Fund

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Venture capital firm Paradigm announced it has raised $2.5 billion for a new cryptocurrency industry investment fund.
Announced on November 15, the fund is the largest yet in the industry, surpassing the $2.2 billion fund Andreessen Horowitz — also known as a16z — launched in June.

Paradigm was created by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia partner Matt Huang. In a blog post, Ehrsam and Huang said:

"This new fund and its size are reflective of crypto being the most exciting frontier in technology. Over the past decade, crypto has come a long way. But cryptocurrencies are still owned by less than 10% of the global population. Decentralized financial systems have grown to hold over $100 billion in cumulative assets, yet still represent a small drop in the context of the traditional financial system. Web3 applications have grown to reach tens of millions of users, yet are still a far cry from the billions of Web2 users. The journey is just beginning, and the potential of crypto has never been more clear."

In October, Coindesk reported that an investor presentation showed Paradigm was trying to raise $1.5 billion, suggesting that there was enormous interest in the fund. Paradigm's flagship fund has invested as little as $1 million to more than $100 million in its portfolio companies and protocols.

These include BlockFi, Coinbase, Chainalysis, Compound, Cosmos, dYdX, Maker, Uniswap and Yield, among others.

This year has seen a huge wave of cryptocurrency investments, with venture capital firms investing more than $21 billion in more than 1,100 deals, Forbes noted.

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The Last Next Big Thing

The $2.2 billion raise a16z announced this summer for its Fund III came at what general partners Chris Dixon, Katie Haun and Ali Yahya called "exciting period for crypto as awareness and adoption of crypto brands and products exploded."

Pointing to Coinbase pulling off one of the biggest public offerings in tech history, the sheer number of crypto projects launched in the 12 months prior, and "the way NFTs broke through the zeitgeist," the trio said "it's clear that crypto is here to stay." They added:

"Despite this momentum, we are still at the very early stages of what is possible. The size of this fund speaks to the size of the opportunity before us: crypto is not only the future of finance but, as with the internet in the early days, is poised to transform all aspects of our lives."

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