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Crypto Cash & The Galaxy Bash: Billionaires Betting Big (And You’ll Want To See This)

BBG News

Ah, the ever-dashing billionaire Mike Novogratz is back at it with Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP, apparently on a jaunty quest to net a handsome $180 million by June, all to sprinkle some fairy dust on early-stage crypto and blockchain startups. Payments and stablecoins? Darling, it’s practically the new haute couture.

Word on the proverbial street – or rather from the mysterious unnamed sources of a very serious Bloomberg report dated April 17 – is that they’ve already galloped past their modest initial target of $150 million, aiming now for a slightly more extravagant $175 to $180 million. One does love a fund that knows what it wants.

While the grand finale is officially set for the end of June, Galaxy’s lips are sealed tighter than a debutante’s diary; their spokesperson, bless them, has declined to comment.

What’s their game? Investing in the fresh-faced ingénues of the crypto world: early-stage enterprises concocting infrastructure and financial magic for the blockchain cabaret. Among their current cronies are the synthetic dollar darlings Ethena, stablecoin socialites M^Zero, the debutante layer-1 blockchain Monad, the asset-tokenizing Plume, and the Ethereum-restaking Renzo, powered by EigenLayer – quite the guest list, if one might say so.

Recall the fund’s first recital in June 2024, when Galaxy Asset Management proudly announced a $113 million curtain-raiser. Their noble cause? Supporting startups dabbling in crypto protocols, software, and those oh-so-financialized applications that keep the party lit.

Steve Kurz, Galaxy’s global head of asset management, waxed poetic in a July release: “This fund will strengthen our commitment to fostering innovation in the digital asset space,” – quite the mouthful – “enabling us to back visionary startups and gain unparalleled insights into the technologies tête-à-tête that will shape our future financial soirées.” J’adore the drama.

Helming the ship are the general partners Will Nuelle and Mike Giampapa, with ambitions to assemble a glittering portfolio of roughly 30 investments aimed at coaxing institutions and startups alike into a waltz on the onchain economy ballroom floor.

Galaxy’s venture antics recently shifted under the safe umbrella of its asset management division, and despite gloomy skies across the crypto VC realm, they’re spiritedly snapping up funds like there’s no tomorrow. One might say they’re the bright tails of the crypto comet.

To paint the backdrop: Q1 2025 saw U.S. crypto venture deals slump by a rather unpleasant 22% year-on-year to about $1.3 billion, with the capital crowd now flocking to the alluring arms of artificial intelligence – gulping down 58% of global VC dollars like it’s the tea at a garden party.

And let’s not forget the February missive from analytics mavens, who noted that even Bitcoin’s triumphant ascent to $100,000 in late 2024 couldn’t stop median crypto VC deal sizes from plummeting nearly 90% since 2018. A sad tumble, indeed.

PitchBook’s Robert Le, sounding like the stern but caring chaperone, declared that the era of wooing investors with little more than a white paper is, alas, extinguished. Today’s dashing founders must bring “significant traction or something else” to the party to keep the lights on.

Still, dear reader, hold onto your hats – Le envisions a 2025 rebound with the potential for a lofty $18 billion venture capital gambol into the crypto realm. Hollywood couldn’t write a more thrilling sequel.

🚀✨🍸

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2025-04-17 09:14

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