- Archetype secures over $100 million for its third crypto venture fund, attracting investments from pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds.
- The new fund aims to support early-stage startups focused on onchain infrastructure, DeFi, stablecoins, and blockchain-based AI applications.
- Recent market trends show a shift toward proven business models and from memecoin hype to sustainable, revenue-generating crypto projects.
- Venture capital investments in the broader crypto sector hit a high of $10.03 billion in Q2 2025, signaling strong institutional interest.
Crypto venture capital continues to demonstrate resilience amid a fluctuating market landscape. Archetype, a notable player in the space, announced it has closed its third fund, Archetype III, surpassing $100 million in total commitments. The fund’s backers include prominent institutional investors such as pension funds, academic endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices, reflecting growing confidence among traditional financial entities in blockchain technology and crypto startups.
Archetype’s portfolio features influential crypto firms like Monad, Privy, Farcaster, Relay, and Ritual. The firm actively seeks to invest in early-stage projects developing onchain infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), and innovative blockchain applications. The new capital will target areas including stablecoins, payment solutions, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), mobile apps leveraging crypto rails, and artificial intelligence in crypto.
“Bitchains are increasingly becoming the backbone of modern commerce, and crypto’s next big breakthrough—comparable to the ChatGPT moment—will likely occur across onchain infrastructure and creator tools,” said Ash Egan, Archetype’s founder and general partner, emphasizing the sector’s promising future.
While venture activity in crypto experienced a slowdown in 2025, with deal counts falling to their lowest in over four years, the quality and focus have shifted. Markets are now favoring projects with proven models and predictable revenues, moving away from speculative bets and memecoin frenzies seen during the 2021 bull run.
Evidence of this shift is reflected in increased investor interest in Bitcoin-focused projects, with the sector raising $175 million across 32 deals in the first half of 2025. Similarly, tokenization and stablecoin infrastructure projects drew significant funding, including $28 million for Stable, a Tether-based blockchain expanding USDt payments, and $22 million for Spiko, a French fintech firm specializing in tokenized money market funds.
Inveniam Capital also invested $20 million into the layer-1 blockchain Mantra, aiming to facilitate institutional use of real-world assets (RWAs) on the blockchain. Overall, venture capital investment in crypto topped $10 billion in Q2 2025—its highest since Q1 2022, when funding reached $16.64 billion—highlighting renewed institutional confidence and sector growth.
