crypto

Toby Bochan5/1/25

Crypto VCs set to raise $4 billion this year

After two bleak years, crypto venture capital funds are seeing an uptick in fundraising as President Trump’s friendlier regulatory environment boosts confidence in the sector’s growth.

Among the larger hauls:

Haun Ventures will complete raising $1 billion in June.
Dragonfly looks close to completing its $500 million fund.
Pantera Capital is raising its fifth fund, which is targeting $1 billion.

Pete Najarian, managing partner of RW3 Ventures, told The Information that the funds are “entering a period when investment funds are running out” from money that poured in during 2021 and 2022. 2022 in particular was a banner year for crypto VC fundraising, peaking at $25 billion.

Najarian added there’s “a lot of competition for money” due not only to the many firms trying to fundraise, but also to other options for investors to get exposure to crypto firms like Strategy or upstart Twenty One Capital as well as myriad bitcoin ETFs.

Crypto Venture Capital Fundraising Springs Back to Life

Crypto Venture Capital Fundraising Springs Back to Life

Pete Najarian, managing partner of RW3 Ventures, told The Information that the funds are “entering a period when investment funds are running out” from money that poured in during 2021 and 2022. 2022 in particular was a banner year for crypto VC fundraising, peaking at $25 billion.

Najarian added there’s “a lot of competition for money” due not only to the many firms trying to fundraise, but also to other options for investors to get exposure to crypto firms like Strategy or upstart Twenty One Capital as well as myriad bitcoin ETFs.

More Crypto

crypto

Sage D. Young1h

Hyperliquid ETFs top inflows as HYPE soars

While investors are opting out of ETFs focused on the two largest cryptocurrencies, some are adding ETFs of alternative coins, chief among them, hype, the native token for Hyperliquid.

Digital asset managers 21shares and Bitwise rolled out HYPE ETFs last week and have yet to notch any outflows. Tuesday saw the highest level of inflows so far at over $11 million, outpacing XRP and solana ETF’s combined inflow of nearly $5.3 million, meanwhile bitcoin and ethereum saw $393 million exit their funds yesterday, according to SoSoValue.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the 21shares Hyperliquid ETF “is growing volume each day since launch in the tens of millions now, 8x over day one, which is [a] really good sign of organic interest.”

The ETF flows coincide with the token's outperformance, jumping 5.7% in the last 24 hours, 29.5% in the past seven days, and more than 100% year to date, data from CoinMarketCap shows. Meanwhile, bitcoin, ethereum, solana, and XRP are all down double digits in 2026.

HYPE began trading a week after former SEC chairman Gary Gensler announced ending his tenure and has an all-time high price of $59.30 set in September 2025.

Hyperliquid, the perpetual futures exchange built on its own blockchain gained traction among users who wanted to trade assets, such as commodities, cryptocurrencies, and equities with leverage in hours when traditional venues are closed.

Treasury firm Hyperliquid Strategies has also rallied on news the SEC will soon greenlight trading tokenized versions of stocks.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes investors are underestimating Hyperliquid’s impact and value. “The market is valuing Hyperliquid as a perpetual crypto futures exchange that happens to be growing quickly. But it should be valued as a global super-app covering all assets,” Hougan said in a Tuesday memo.

“Its addressable universe is not the $3 trillion crypto market, but the $600 trillion market for global assets. Those are two completely different businesses," Hougan continued. “Today’s prices suggest you’re being offered the second at the cost of the first."

99% of fees generated on Hyperliquid are dedicated to token buybacks, which, annualized, comes to $618 million, data from DefiLlama shows. The market capitalization of HYPE stands at $12.3 billion.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bitcoin ETFs suffer near $1 billion in outflows in 2 days, as Trump Media withdraws bitcoin ETF application

Bitcoin’s price is “trapped between 76,000 and 78,000,” with analysts saying the dip reflects “a deeper structural problem beneath crypto markets.”

People walk past an advertisement feature Donald Trump with...

crypto

Sage D. Young5/19/26

Ethereum exits: Investors depart its ETFs and the Ethereum Foundation shrinks (again)

On Monday, two researchers announced they were leaving the nonprofit organization tasked with supporting the second-largest blockchain network, adding to a growing exodus from the Ethereum Foundation.

Carl Beek, who helped architect the early design of ethereum’s beacon chain, will end his seven-year tenure with the foundation at the end of the month, while research scientist Julian Ma, who focused on product and growth work, has also decided to leave after four years.

Beek and Ma deepen a recent bout of turnover. Last week, the foundation said in a blog post that lead developers Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko are moving on from the organization. In April, Josh Stark, who was on the Ethereum Foundation leadership team for five years, left, as did Trent Van Epps, who organized Protocol Guild, which provides funding to core developers. The string of departures has raised concerns among those in the ecosystem.

“There have been a lot of disagreements about where ETH should move, whether from an issuance or architectural standpoint,” Laurens Fraussen, a research analyst at data provider Kaiko, told Sherwood News. “I’d assume the people leaving are either looking for greener pastures or don’t agree with the way the EF is being run.”

The foundation exodus comes as investors exit from ethereum ETFs. The investment vehicles saw more than $86 million in outflows on Monday, making six straight days of outflows, the longest streak since March, according to SoSoValue.

Meanwhile, an address identified as Galaxy Digital has a $2.3 million short position on ethereum using 20x leverage on Hyperliquid, data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen shows. The price of ethereum stands just under $2,110 as of 12:10 p.m. ET. With an entry point of $2,203, the firm has an unrealized gain of $102,000.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bernstein stamps several bitcoin miners with “outperform” ratings: “An integral part of the AI value chain”

Analysts say IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific are “well positioned in a power-constrained environment” to profit.

Cryptocurrency mining rigs

crypto

Sage D. Young5/18/26

Ethereum falls faster than bitcoin as crypto tape turns red

The second-largest cryptocurrency is nearing the $2,100 mark, declining more than 9% in the last seven days, a steeper decrease than its older sibling bitcoin, which is also suffering.

Ethereum ETFs have had five consecutive days of outflows combining for $255 million, data from SoSoValue shows.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and Harvard University both filed 13Fs showing each pulled back their exposure to ethereum.

Goldman now holds nearly $178 million in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF, down from $679 million, according to its latest 13F filing. It also exited its $394 million position in the Fidelity Ethereum Fund as well as a smaller position in ETHZilla, while adding $67 million of the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF.

Harvard completely trimmed its ethereum exposure. The endowment did not report any ethereum ETF holdings in its latest 13F filing, submitted Friday, but showed an $86.8 million position in BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF in its previous 13F filing in February.

But ethereum bulls remain: treasury behemoth BitMine Immersion Technologies continued its accumlation of ethereum, albeit at a slower pace. “Over the past week, we acquired 71,672 ETH,” Chairman Tom Lee said in a Monday press release. “We view the recent pullback of ETH to below $2,200 as an attractive opportunity.” The firm’s unrealized loss now exceeds more than $7.3 billion.

Traders aren’t so bullish: prediction market-implied odds of ethereum breaking $2,500 in May stand at just 7%, a sharp drop-off from a week ago, when the probability was at 57%.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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