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Head of crypto VC collective shrinks: a16z crypto fund management scale plummets by 40%, Multicoin cut in half
Original Author: Ben Weiss
Original Translation: Shenchao TechFlow
Introduction: A Fortune reporter obtained a batch of undisclosed financial disclosure documents from the SEC regarding crypto VC, showing that the assets under management (AUM) of leading institutions such as Paradigm, Pantera, a16z crypto, and Multicoin are set to shrink across the board by 2025. However, shrinkage is not entirely a bad thing— a16z crypto returned money to LPs at the market peak, achieving a DPI of 5.4 times for its first fund. The only firm experiencing growth is Haun Ventures, which hit the jackpot in the stablecoin sector with BVNK being acquired by Mastercard.
The top players in crypto VC could not escape the market crash of 2025.
Fortune reporter Ben Weiss obtained a batch of previously undisclosed financial disclosure documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The data is straightforward: the AUM of top institutions like Paradigm and Pantera Capital collectively shrank in 2025.
Caption: Changes in AUM of leading crypto VCs from 2021 to 2025
Chart by: Ben Weiss / Fortune
But before diving into the numbers, one premise needs to be clarified: AUM is not a good indicator of VC success or failure. It does not reflect new rounds of financing, LP exit distributions, nor does it account for capital calls. The prices of crypto assets are inherently volatile— a tweet from an emotionally unstable individual can send prices on a rollercoaster (pick any one: Musk, Trump, Zhao Changpeng). Established crypto VCs have experienced asset surges during the NFT craze of 2021 and have also witnessed portfolio crashes during the subsequent "crypto winter."
Original author Ben Weiss also emphasizes: true top investors ultimately need to return money to LPs. Short-term fluctuations in AUM do not equate to performance quality.
With this premise clarified, let's look at the specific data.
a16z crypto: AUM shrinks nearly 40%, but money returned to LPs
The AUM of a16z crypto's four crypto funds plummeted nearly 40% from 2024, dropping to $9.5 billion. During the same period, the parent company Andreessen Horowitz's asset management scale ballooned to over $100 billion.
The shrinkage is partly due to the firm beginning to distribute returns from the first three funds back to LPs. According to insiders, a16z crypto intends to choose the market peak in 2025 for distributions.
How effective was this? According to data from Newcomer, the net DPI (distribution to paid-in capital ratio) of a16z's first crypto fund reached 5.4 times. Compared to other VC funds raised in the same period on the Carta platform in 2018, this return rate is quite impressive.
In other words, the shrinkage of AUM for a16z crypto is more a result of "making money and returning it to LPs" rather than "portfolio crashes."
Multicoin: AUM halved to $2.7 billion
Multicoin Capital's fate is deeply tied to the crypto market. During the crypto frenzy of 2021, its AUM nearly tripled in a year, approaching $9 billion. After the FTX collapse, it plummeted directly, followed by a gradual rebound over the next two years.
However, the downturn in 2025 has brought it back down. From 2024 to 2025, Multicoin's AUM shrank by more than half, dropping to about $2.7 billion. Since BTC began to plummet in October 2025, crypto assets have fallen across the board, and Multicoin's structure, which operates both a hedge fund and a VC fund, has been hit hardest.
To add some context: Multicoin co-founder Kyle Samani left the company in February this year to invest in other areas of technology.
Pantera: Five portfolio companies go public, capital flows back to LPs
Pantera Capital's AUM also shrank, but similar to a16z, part of the reason is the proactive exit distribution to LPs.
According to insiders, Pantera had five portfolio companies go public in 2025, including Circle and BitGo. These exits brought considerable cash flow back.
Haun Ventures: The only exception with over 30% AUM growth
Amidst the shrinkage, Haun Ventures is the only exception.
Founded by former a16z crypto partner Katie Haun, the firm saw its AUM grow by over 30% year-on-year, approaching $2.5 billion. This is partly due to hitting the right sector—its investment in the stablecoin company BVNK was acquired by Mastercard for up to $1.8 billion. Additionally, Haun Ventures itself is raising a new $1 billion fund in 2025.
A new round of fundraising has begun
Although AUM has shrunk, leading institutions have not slowed down:
Paradigm is raising a new fund of up to $1.5 billion. a16z crypto is raising up to $2 billion. Dragonfly just closed its fourth fund at $650 million. After the article was published, Fortune added a correction: a Dragonfly spokesperson actually responded, confirming that the data is "accurate" and stating, "We are actively deploying capital."
Spokespersons for Paradigm, Pantera, a16z crypto, Multicoin, and Haun Ventures all declined to comment.
The cyclical fate of crypto VC
The original text ends here, but there are a few backgrounds worth adding.
Crypto VCs are fundamentally different from traditional tech VCs. Traditional VCs invest in equity, exiting through IPOs or acquisitions. Many crypto startups have their own tokens, and VCs' holdings are directly exposed to the price fluctuations of these tokens.
Multicoin is the most extreme case: according to previous reports by Fortune, from 2017 to 2021, its assets increased by 20,287%, only to retract by 90% in 2022. Such volatility is unimaginable in traditional VC.
According to Pantera Capital's outlook report earlier this year, the total market value of non-BTC crypto (excluding ETH and stablecoins) has dropped by about 44% from its peak at the end of 2024. However, historically, bear markets also serve as a window for bottom-fishing. Several leading institutions are currently intensively fundraising, betting on the next cycle.
According to exclusive reports from Fortune, a16z crypto's fifth fund plans to complete fundraising in the first half of 2026, led by Chris Dixon, and will continue to heavily invest in blockchain. Paradigm's new fund, according to the Wall Street Journal, will expand into AI and robotics. The strategies of the two are clearly distinct: a16z continues to go all-in on crypto, while Paradigm chooses to hedge across sectors.
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Mixin has launched USTD-margined perpetual contracts, bringing derivative trading into the chat scene.
The privacy-focused crypto wallet Mixin announced today the launch of its U-based perpetual contract (a derivative priced in USDT). Unlike traditional exchanges, Mixin has taken a new approach by "liberating" derivative trading from isolated matching engines and embedding it into the instant messaging environment.
Users can directly open positions within the app with leverage of up to 200x, while sharing positions, discussing strategies, and copy trading within private communities. Trading, social interaction, and asset management are integrated into the same interface.
Based on its non-custodial architecture, Mixin has eliminated friction from the traditional onboarding process, allowing users to participate in perpetual contract trading without identity verification.
The trading process has been streamlined into five steps:
· Choose the trading asset
· Select long or short
· Input position size and leverage
· Confirm order details
· Confirm and open the position
The interface provides real-time visualization of price, position, and profit and loss (PnL), allowing users to complete trades without switching between multiple modules.
Mixin has directly integrated social features into the derivative trading environment. Users can create private trading communities and interact around real-time positions:
· End-to-end encrypted private groups supporting up to 1024 members
· End-to-end encrypted voice communication
· One-click position sharing
· One-click trade copying
On the execution side, Mixin aggregates liquidity from multiple sources and accesses decentralized protocol and external market liquidity through a unified trading interface.
By combining social interaction with trade execution, Mixin enables users to collaborate, share, and execute trading strategies instantly within the same environment.
Mixin has also introduced a referral incentive system based on trading behavior:
· Users can join with an invite code
· Up to 60% of trading fees as referral rewards
· Incentive mechanism designed for long-term, sustainable earnings
This model aims to drive user-driven network expansion and organic growth.
Mixin's derivative transactions are built on top of its existing self-custody wallet infrastructure, with core features including:
· Separation of transaction account and asset storage
· User full control over assets
· Platform does not custody user funds
· Built-in privacy mechanisms to reduce data exposure
The system aims to strike a balance between transaction efficiency, asset security, and privacy protection.
Against the background of perpetual contracts becoming a mainstream trading tool, Mixin is exploring a different development direction by lowering barriers, enhancing social and privacy attributes.
The platform does not only view transactions as execution actions but positions them as a networked activity: transactions have social attributes, strategies can be shared, and relationships between individuals also become part of the financial system.
Mixin's design is based on a user-initiated, user-controlled model. The platform neither custodies assets nor executes transactions on behalf of users.
This model aligns with a statement issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 13, 2026, titled "Staff Statement on Whether Partial User Interface Used in Preparing Cryptocurrency Securities Transactions May Require Broker-Dealer Registration."
The statement indicates that, under the premise where transactions are entirely initiated and controlled by users, non-custodial service providers that offer neutral interfaces may not need to register as broker-dealers or exchanges.
Mixin is a decentralized, self-custodial privacy wallet designed to provide secure and efficient digital asset management services.
Its core capabilities include:
· Aggregation: integrating multi-chain assets and routing between different transaction paths to simplify user operations
· High liquidity access: connecting to various liquidity sources, including decentralized protocols and external markets
· Decentralization: achieving full user control over assets without relying on custodial intermediaries
· Privacy protection: safeguarding assets and data through MPC, CryptoNote, and end-to-end encrypted communication
Mixin has been in operation for over 8 years, supporting over 40 blockchains and more than 10,000 assets, with a global user base exceeding 10 million and an on-chain self-custodied asset scale of over $1 billion.
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