Bearish Still? Coinbase CoFounder’s VC Firm Looks to Raise Over a Billion Dollars to Invest in Startups

Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm is looking to raise more than $1 billion for its new fund that will invest in startups. The fund could weigh between $1.25 billion and $1.5 billion, first reported by CoinDesk citing an investor deck. Co-founded by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase's Fred Ehsram, the firm aims to close its fundraising efforts on November 12. Besides raising funds from its limited partners, they are also reportedly seeking a minimum general partner commitment of 1%. The firm has also been doing the rounds among family offices recently. Additionally, the firm is hiring Matthew Mizbani of hedge fund Coatue Management as a partner. Reportedly, Mizbani, who previously worked at Morgan Stanley and Two Sigma, has been hired for the new fund. While crypto prices are slowly moving still, money in the private market continues to flow. According to a report from Bank of America, VCs poured in $17 billion in crypto projects in the first half of 2021, “dwarfing” the $5.5 billion from the same period last year. In Q3, another $8 billion have been injected in private investment across 423 deals. In late June this year, VC giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) had also announced that it had raised a whopping $2.2 billion for its third crypto fund — the industry’s largest crypto-related fund to date.