1/ crypto VC is going through an explosive 🧨 phase

there are big funds (>$500M AUM), a lot of small funds (<$50M AUM), and *tons* of prop firms + angels

i’ve done 15 deals in the last 3 months as an angel + small fund @CoinSharesCo VC.

observations + implications... šŸ‘‡šŸ¾

2/ the big firms need to deploy in size - $5M checks and up

a $250M fund could do a $5-10M deal every month for two years and still be under-allocated

and there aren’t enough companies raising series B / C / D rounds!!!

every deal i’ve done lately is under $50M valuation
3/ so we see firms competing to take down entire rounds.

a recent series A financing had two firms competing to take down the ENTIRE ROUND, and it eventually got upsized, a LOT.

if a company is putting up user acquisition / growth and a revenue story, it’s highly competitive
4/ most projects and co’s don’t need money tho - why would a founder take 20-40% dilution when they’re banking cash and crypto? so they do 5-10%

so the valuations go up, but available allocations go down, resulting in an even bigger squeeze on allocators who *need* to deploy
5/ add in the onslaught of non-crypto M&A that’s coming, which is culling the herd of investable unicorns

add in the wave of SPACs and direct listings taking later stage opportunities out

there just aren’t enough places to put capital in size rn

what’s a fund to do?
6/ seed / series A is ultra competitive - i’m trying to deploy as fast as i can across a wide range of co’s, because many will not raise again or raise small rounds at crazy valuations

but your pedigree and reputation matter - founders can be choosy since there’s so much $$$
7/ funds are rushing to add platform + services - something i built at @DCGco and continue to build @CoinSharesCo - it’s a big differentiator!

perks include code audits, marketing, hiring support, research, etc

expect to see this grow exponentially (it already has in trad VC)
8/ companies are becoming more selective in how they raise and have more pools of capital available to them - many rounds now never hit the fundraising trail

and once @coinbase IPO goes out at $50B+, even more capital is going to come hunting for ROI in crypto
9/ it’s a founder’s market and there’s TONS of capital chasing too few deals

the crunch is going to get intense

for investors, be careful and DYOR - always down to trade deal notes

for founders, be choosy. raise less. demand more value! your investors work for YOU 🤩
10/ for those thinking about starting a co - if you want to chat, don’t hesitate to reach out! there is a great network of folks who have been funding this industry for years ā¤ļø use them!

we are about to enter a brand new era of crypto VC and i couldn’t be more excited šŸ’„šŸ§ØšŸ’„
disclosure: our equity investments @CoinSharesCo can be found at https://t.co/kHiDYlNRdH

my personal portfolio including companies and protocols can be found at https://t.co/K3fVxXPq0v (overdue for an update tho!)

More from Crypto

1/ Welcome to #DeFi Wednesday.

Let's talk about how interest-bearing cash on a blockchain is going to revolutionise boring corporate treasury management that concerns every company is is a larger business than all crypto trading in the world.

Enter the thread

šŸ‘‡šŸ‘‡šŸ‘‡


2/ Blockchain community is often seen as toxic maxis and redditors who shill other their weekly favourite shitcoin in the hope of getting Lambo.

Sometimes we also do things that progress humanity towards the better future and interest-bearing cash is one of those things.


3/ Less chad and more things that actually matter:

My incomplete theory of interest-bearing cash is also available also as a blog post:

https://t.co/uiG0fZiVyu

It is 15 pages. Pick your slow poison or die fast by continue reading here.

4/ First time in the history we have an ability to create interest-bearing cash-like instruments.

Interest-bearing cash ticks up dollar (euro) balance real-time in your wallet.

Here is a demonstration using @aaveaave aDAI, based on @makerdao DAI, and @TrustWalletApp


5/ Interest-bearing cash is not like your bank's saving account. Your money in a bank is not yours, but bank's. There are some flaws in the current banking system causing a headache for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)
You may be wondering why @bristoliver rather cryptically RT’d a chart that I posted last night. The answer is not just that he loves quadratic fits on log axes, but that this chart may –and I stress may– hint at a vaccine effect amongst the over 80s THREAD


WARNING: this is a long thread, and it’s a bit of a roller-coaster. We find some apparently strong patterns in the data, and then start to unpick them a bit. So if you start getting excited half way through you might find you’re less excited at the end. But we’ll see…

First we first have to go back a bit. @bristoliver posted a thread a few days ago explaining why, with a constant vaccination rate, a log plot of cases should show a quadratic form. In other words, it should fit an equation like: a + b.x + c.x^2

I meant to link in the model thread there - here it is


the quadratic coefficient – the ā€˜c’ in that equation – gives an estimate of the % of the population who are being newly protected by the vaccine each day. Please note ā€˜protected by the vaccine’, not ā€˜vaccinated’ – as we don't expect 100% protection after the first dose

You May Also Like