Paradigm 🔝— one of the most influential venture funds in the crypto industry, known for its strategic investments in key infrastructure projects.
📅Founded in 2018 by former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang and co-author of 'Mastering Bitcoin' Fred Ersam, the fund focuses on early and late-stage funding of blockchain startups.
📈In this article, we will analyze Paradigm's top-6 investments over the past year, evaluate their strategy, and predict which trends will shape the crypto market in the coming years.
Paradigm's strategy: bet on infrastructure and mass adoption
Paradigm prefers to invest in fundamental technologies rather than speculative projects. Key areas:
✅Scalability of blockchains (L2, bridges, restaking)
✅Decentralized finance (DeFi, payment systems)
✅Social and AI projects in Web3
✅Crypto infrastructure (wallets, developer tools)
The fund does not just invest money but actively participates in the development of portfolio companies, helping with tokenomics architecture, security, and marketing.
Paradigm: how a leading investor shapes the future of the crypto industry
Top-6 investments of Paradigm (2024–2025)
6️⃣. Across Protocol (#ACX ) — $41 million (04.02.2025)
Sector: Bridges Description: Decentralized optimistic bridge with relayers. Investors: Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital.
Why it matters:
🏹Solves the liquidity and speed problem of cross-network transfers.
🏹Competes with LayerZero and Synapse.
5️⃣. Nous Research — $50 million (25.04.2025)
Sector: AI + blockchain Description: Development of open language models for Web3. Investors: Paradigm (the only Tier-1).
Why it matters:
🏹Combination of AI and decentralization — a key trend for 2025+.
🏹Could become an alternative to centralized ChatGPT and Gemini.
4️⃣. Babylon (BABY) — $70 million (30.05.2024)
Sector: Restaking Bitcoin Description: Allows staking BTC in PoS networks (Ethereum, Solana). Investors: Paradigm, Polychain, Galaxy.
Why it matters:
🏹First mass utilization of BTC in DeFi.
🏹Competition for EigenLayer (but with Bitcoin support).
🥉. Mesh — $82 million (11.03.2025)
Sector: Crypto payments Description: Financial OS for business (similar to Stripe for crypto). Investors: Paradigm, ConsenSys, PayPal Ventures.
Why it matters:
🏹Bridge between traditional finance and DeFi.
🏹Already integrated with Samsung and Money Forward.
🥈. Farcaster — $150 million (21.05.2024)
Sector: Decentralized social networks (SocialFi) Description: A blockchain analog of Twitter. Investors: Paradigm, a16z, USV.
Why it matters:
🏹Main competitor to Lens Protocol (Aave).
🏹Actively growing: 500K+ users in 2025.
🥇. Phantom — $150 million (15.01.2025)
Sector: Crypto wallets Description: Leader in wallets for Solana, Ethereum, Polygon. Investors: Paradigm, Sequoia, a16z.
Why it matters:
🏹Over 10 million users.
🏹Main driver of adoption in the Solana ecosystem.
Why is Paradigm the main insider in the crypto market?
☑️Early entry into trends:
Invested in Optimism before the L2 boom. Supported Farcaster before the SocialFi surge.
☑️Deep expertise:
Helping projects with architecture (e.g., in the tokenomics of Babylon).
☑️Partner network:
Close ties with Coinbase, a16z, Galaxy.
Conclusion: What to expect from Paradigm in 2025–2026?
✅Strengthening in AI + blockchain (Nous Research).
✅Integration of Bitcoin into DeFi (Babylon).
✅New SocialFi protocols (analogues of Farcaster).
