Why can this institution still grow by 150% when the head crypto VC scale has shrunk significantly?

Author: Gu Yu, ChainCatcher

As the overall crypto market declines, almost all crypto VC fund management sizes are shrinking accordingly, and the industry has entered 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According to a batch of unpublished financial disclosure documents obtained last week by The Wealth from the U.S. SEC, data shows that the management assets under management (AUM) of leading institutions like Paradigm, Pantera, a16z crypto, Multicoin, etc., will shrink across the board by 2025, with Multicoin shrinking by more than half.

The only fund growing against the trend is Haun Ventures, a venture capital fund founded just four years ago, whose AUM has 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 news reported that Haun Ventures was close to closing a new $1 billion fundraise. These developments reflect that Haun Ventures and its founder Katie Haun’s unique investment strategy have been validated by the market and LPs, positioning it among top-tier VCs.

Distinct Founder Style and Background

The difference with Haun Ventures was evident from the start.

Founder Katie Haun is not a typical crypto investor. She served as a U.S. federal prosecutor for over a decade, specializing in financial crime investigations, and created the first government-specific cryptocurrency task force. In 2018, she became the first female partner at a16z and co-led the firm’s cryptocurrency fund, also serving 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 profoundly deep.

It’s worth noting that 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, Haun Ventures once focused heavily on NFTs, investing in at least four NFT projects—Opensea, Autograph, ZORA, Highlight—in the first half of 2022.

But as the NFT bubble and other concepts burst rapidly, Haun Ventures demonstrated strong correction and iteration ability, quickly shrinking its scope from the second half of 2022, significantly reducing deal frequency, 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 a deal 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 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, then surged to a peak of $126k in 2025, bringing substantial investment returns to Haun Ventures, largely offsetting losses in NFT and other sectors, 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 industry’s critical transition point 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, security solutions for protocol economy 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 over 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 capital.

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

Since October 2024, more than five portfolio companies of Haun Ventures 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 a $750 million valuation for crypto payment platform BVNK, which was acquired at over $1.8 billion.

In an environment where crypto asset exit channels are increasingly narrow 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 through acquisitions—more capital-efficient than holding a bunch of illiquid tokens.

From chasing hot sectors like NFTs, to balanced allocations of tokens and equity, and now focusing on B2B payments and infrastructure, Haun Ventures’ evolution exemplifies the shift of crypto VC 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—grounded in compliance and prudence—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.