Why can this institution still grow by 150% despite the overall shrinkage of head crypto VC scale?

Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

As the overall crypto market declines, almost all crypto VC fund management sizes are shrinking accordingly, and the industry is entering a brutal cleanup cycle. But against this backdrop, a crypto venture capital fund established less than five years ago has become a clear exception, charting an independent growth curve amid contraction.

According to a batch of undisclosed financial disclosure documents of crypto VCs obtained last week by The Economist from the U.S. SEC, data shows that the management assets (AUM) of leading institutions such as Paradigm, Pantera, a16z crypto, Multicoin, etc., will shrink across the board by 2025, with Multicoin shrinking by more than half.

The only one growing against the trend is Haun Ventures, a venture fund founded just four years ago, whose assets under management have grown from an initial $1 billion to $2.5 billion by 2025.

In the bleak crypto market, this is no mere luck. Last year, market reports indicated that Haun Ventures was close to closing a new $1 billion fundraise. These developments reflect that Haun Ventures and its founder, Katie Haun, have a unique investment strategy that has been validated by the market and LPs, positioning it among top-tier VCs.

Distinct Founder Style and Background

Haun Ventures’ difference was evident from the start.

Founder Katie Haun is not a typical crypto investor. She previously served as a U.S. federal prosecutor for over a decade, specializing in financial crime investigations, and created the U.S. government’s first cryptocurrency task force. In 2018, she became the first female partner at a16z, co-leading the firm’s cryptocurrency fund, and also served on Coinbase’s board, giving her a blend of policy insight, institutional resources, and practical experience.

This background shapes her understanding of the crypto industry not merely from the perspective of “technological potential” or “market size,” but from compliance boundaries, systemic risks, and institutional embedding capabilities. The influence of this background is not overt but profound.

Notably, Haun Ventures is one of only two crypto funds named after their founders, reflecting a strong founder-led style. The other is a16z.

In its early days, Haun Ventures was not perfect and also fell into market hype traps. Looking back at its investment record, the firm once focused heavily on NFTs, investing in at least four NFT projects—Opensea, Autograph, ZORA, Highlight—in the first half of 2022.

However, as the NFT bubble and other concepts burst rapidly, Haun Ventures demonstrated strong correction and iteration capabilities, quickly shrinking its scope from the second half of 2022, significantly reducing deal activity, and adopting an extremely cautious approach to market downturns.

According to RootData, during the second half of 2022 and the entire year of 2023, over 18 months, Haun Ventures disclosed participation in only six funding rounds, averaging just once every three months.

As of June 2023, Haun Ventures partner Rosenblum stated in an interview that the firm’s investments are almost evenly split between digital tokens and traditional equity, with about 30% of the funds invested in around twenty projects, including publicly traded, highly liquid tokens. These tokens include well-known cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as small-cap tokens related to specific projects.

At that time, Bitcoin’s price had long hovered between $15,000 and $30k, later reaching a peak of $126k in 2025, bringing substantial investment returns to Haun Ventures, largely offsetting losses from NFT and other sector investments, and becoming a key driver of its scale growth.

Key Turning Point

Starting in 2024, Haun Ventures’ investment strategy began to shift noticeably, focusing more on B2B solutions such as payments and developer platforms.

At that time, these sectors were not glamorous; they lacked explosive stories and were hard to generate market sentiment quickly, but they hit the critical point of industry transition from speculation to practicality.

In that year, Haun Ventures invested in nearly ten B2B companies, including stablecoin payment platform Bridge, crypto-native infrastructure platform Conduit, protocol security solution Chaos Labs, Solana development platform Helius, and crypto payment platform BVNK.

In terms of investment style, Haun Ventures especially favors leading investments. According to RootData, out of 39 disclosed funding rounds, it led 22, with a lead investment rate exceeding 56%, ranking first among top-tier VCs. This demonstrates Haun Ventures’ extraordinary confidence in its portfolio, willing to support high-potential early-stage projects with large sums.

Today, payments have become the most highly valued and clearly exit-viable track in crypto. Haun Ventures’ early positioning and its usual lead-investment style have yielded very attractive exit returns.

Since October 2024, over five portfolio companies have been acquired, with several payment companies achieving high multiples. For example, Haun Ventures led a $200 million valuation for stablecoin platform Bridge, which was ultimately acquired at a valuation exceeding $1.1 billion. It also led BVNK at a $750 million valuation, which was acquired at over $1.8 billion.

In an environment where crypto asset exit channels are narrowing and secondary market liquidity is highly concentrated among top players, Haun Ventures has demonstrated an alternative path: investing in companies that solve real payment pain points and are compatible with traditional finance through equity, and achieving high multiples via M&A, which is more capital-efficient than holding a bunch of illiquid tokens.

From chasing hot sectors like NFTs, balancing token and equity allocations, to focusing on B2B payments and infrastructure, Haun Ventures’ evolution exemplifies the shift of crypto VCs from speculation to value-driven investing. Katie Haun’s compliance background, the fund’s rapid correction ability, cautious deal pace, high lead-investment ratio, and precise focus on real applications and exit paths together form a moat that endures through cycles.

As industry bubbles burst and institutions relying on stories and leverage shrink, Haun Ventures, with its compliance and steady approach, has become the most certain winner in the crypto winter, pointing the way for the next phase of survival and growth in the VC industry.