CoinFund debuts $83M crypto startup fund

CoinFund, a blockchain investment firm behind several recent venture raises, has closed an $83 million funding round as part of its ongoing initiative to bootstrap promising crypto-focused startups.

The oversubscribed fundraise was led by Venrock, a California-based venture capital firm founded in 1969. CoinFund said several other “forward-thinking institutional allocators” contributed to the raise, but did not name them.

David Pakman, partner at Venrock, touted CoinFund’s ability to identify and help develop leading crypto startups:

“CoinFund’s deep connectivity throughout the entire crypto ecosystem, the firm’s critical technical insights and its ability to incubate projects at the earliest stages differentiates them from other investors in the space.”

CoinFund CEO Jake Brukhman said the capital raise demonstrates that institutions are keen to back budding blockchain and cryptocurrency startups. He said the funding will go toward expanding the team and further developing in-house capacity.

The latest haul represents CoinFund’s third successful venture capital raise. This year alone, the company has backed a total of eight projects, including nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible and ClayStack, a liquid staking protocol. As Cointelegraph also reported, CoinFund was behind Solana Labs’ massive $314 million private token sale that closed in June. CoinFund has also backed leading blockchain projects The Graph, Blockdaemon, Maker, Ethereum, Coinbase and Polkadot.

Related: ClayStack raises $5.2M for liquid staking protocol

Investors’ appetite for early-stage blockchain companies appears to be growing despite alarming signs of a cryptocurrency bear market. This year alone, venture capitalists have poured billions into blockchain- and crypto-focused startups. Firms like Andreessen Horowitz have also established multibillion-dollar funds earmarked specifically for cryptocurrency companies.

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