Investors are shifting away from pre-seed bets toward projects with proven business models
Archetype, a crypto venture capital firm, has closed over $100 million in capital commitments for its third fund, Archetype III. The company announced this milestone in a press release on Tuesday, highlighting its continued focus on early-stage crypto startups.
The new fund received backing from a diverse range of institutional investors. These include pension funds, academic endowments, funds of funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices, showing growing institutional interest in the crypto space.
Archetype has previously invested in crypto companies such as Monad, Privy, Farcaster, Relay, and Ritual. The firm specializes in funding early-stage startups that are building fundamental blockchain technology and applications.
With the new capital, Archetype plans to focus on several key areas in the crypto ecosystem. These include stablecoins, payment solutions, onchain social networks, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), mobile apps built on crypto rails, and crypto AI applications.
Ash Egan, founder and general partner at Archetype, shared his vision for the industry in the announcement. “Blockchains are becoming the commerce rails of the world, and crypto’s ChatGPT moment is set to emerge atop uniquely performant onchain infrastructure and a powerful new class of creator tooling,” he stated.
The crypto venture capital landscape has evolved over recent years. May 2025 saw crypto venture activity fall to its lowest deal count in more than four years, with only 62 rounds completed. However, these raises still totaled more than $909 million, indicating larger average deal sizes.
This trend reflects a broader shift in investment strategy within the crypto sector. Investors are moving away from the pre-seed bets and memecoin frenzies that characterized the 2021 bull run. Instead, they’re focusing on projects with proven business models and predictable revenue streams.
Bitcoin-focused projects have seen renewed interest from investors. The emerging Bitcoin DeFi sector raised $175 million across 32 deals in the first half of 2025, showing growing confidence in building on Bitcoin’s network.
Another area attracting substantial investment is tokenization and stablecoin infrastructure. Recent deals include $28 million for Stable, a Tether-focused blockchain aiming to expand USDt payments, and $22 million for Spiko, a French fintech offering tokenized money market funds.
Inveniam Capital, which provides decentralized data infrastructure, invested $20 million into the layer-1 blockchain Mantra. This investment aims to support bringing institutional real-world assets (RWAs) onto the network, furthering the integration between traditional finance and blockchain technology.
The increased focus on infrastructure for real-world assets reflects the maturing crypto ecosystem. Investors see potential in bridging traditional finance with blockchain technology through tokenization and stablecoin solutions.
According to data from CryptoRank, venture capital investment in crypto reached $10.03 billion in the second quarter of 2025. This represents the highest level of investment since Q1 2022, which saw $16.64 billion in funding.
