Venture capital (VC) firms have become much more selective with the crypto projects they invest in, representing a shift from the previous cycle due to market maturation, according to Eva Oberholzer, the chief investment officer at VC firm Ajna Capital. 

“It’s harder because we have reached a different stage in crypto, similar to every cycle we have seen for other technologies in the past,” Oberholzer told Cointelegraph.

She added that market maturation has slowed down pre-seed investing, as VCs pivot their attention to established projects with clear business models. Oberholzer said:

“It’s more about predictable revenue models, institutional dependency, and irreversible adoption. So, what we see right now is that crypto is not driven by any memecoin frenzies or other trends, but it’s more about institutional adoption.”

The shift in VC activity reflects the broader trend of institutional crypto investment and the focus on revenue-generating digital asset businesses, as opposed to the price speculation that drove investment during previous crypto cycles, including the 2021 bull market. 

Related: VC Roundup: Bitcoin DeFi surges, but tokenization and stablecoins gain steam

The traditional financial world demands yield and revenue-producing crypto businesses

Traditional financial investors, including Wall Street firms, venture capitalists, and institutional funds, are increasingly demanding crypto projects that provide established, predictable revenue streams.

VC firms are concentrating on stablecoin projects and investing in other forms of payment infrastructure that can generate fees, Oberholzer said. 

Real-world asset tokenization (RWA) platforms are also on the radar of VC firms due to the revenue models associated with minting and managing tokenized RWAs onchain.

Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer (CIO) at investment firm Bitwise, recently told Cointelegraph that the quest for yield is driving Wall Street investment in Ether (ETH).

“If you take $1 billion of ETH and you put it into a company and you stake it, all of a sudden, you’re generating earnings. And investors are really used to companies that generate earnings,” Hougan said.

The smart contract layer-1 blockchain hosts the majority of the stablecoin, RWA market, and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity that generates stable revenues through fees and other forms of financial rent for its owners.

Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs: Inside story

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/venture-capital-game-has-changed-due-to-market-maturation-vc-exec/feed/ 0 56099 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trump-media-and-crypto-com-launch-6-4-billion-cro-focused-crypto-venture/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trump-media-and-crypto-com-launch-6-4-billion-cro-focused-crypto-venture/#respond Wed, 27 Aug 2025 09:48:46 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/trump-media-and-crypto-com-launch-6-4-billion-cro-focused-crypto-venture/

Trump Media & Technology Group is partnering with Crypto.com

$4.6B

and Yorkville Acquisition to launch a new digital asset-focused company.

The project focuses on building a treasury primarily composed of CRO
CRO


$0.2246

, the native cryptocurrency of the Cronos blockchain, which was created by Crypto.com.

According to a press release published on August 26, the three companies have signed a formal agreement to form a business called Trump Media Group CRO Strategy. This new venture will focus on acquiring and managing a large supply of CRO tokens to create a sizable reserve backed by both digital and physical assets.

Did you know?

Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?

Subscribe – We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!

What is Algorand? ALGO Coin Explained With Animations

Ownership of the company will be split between the three founding parties. They plan to start with a combined funding package totaling $6.42 billion. This includes $1 billion worth of CRO tokens, $420 million in a mix of cash and warrants, and access to a $5 billion credit line provided by a Yorkville-related firm.

To support this initiative, Yorkville also intends to list its Class A shares on Nasdaq under the proposed ticker symbol MCGA.

Once the business combination is completed, the new company plans to allocate nearly all of its available cash to acquiring additional CRO tokens. The approach is based on building a treasury that produces returns over time.

Part of this plan includes setting up a validator on the Cronos blockchain network. Validators are participants in proof-of-stake (PoS) systems that help secure the network and validate transactions.

Thumzup Media Corporation, which initially focused on social media marketing, is expanding its involvement in the cryptocurrency industry. How? Read the full story.

---

Venture capital firm Dragonfly said Friday that the U.S. government is weighing potential charges over its 2020 investment in PepperSec, the developer of Tornado Cash, marking a rare instance where federal prosecutors may target a venture investor for backing a crypto project.

In a detailed statement, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi called the prospect of such charges “outrageous” and legally unfounded.

He said the firm invested in PepperSec in August 2020 after securing an independent legal opinion that confirmed Tornado Cash, as designed, complied with federal guidance issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in 2019.

Qureshi further stated that Dragonfly believed strongly in supporting open-source privacy-preserving technologies and continues to stand by that investment.

The development comes days after the prosecution faced a setback in developer Roman Storm’s trial after the FBI failed to connect funds stolen from a key witness to Tornado Cash.

Tornado Cash, launched in 2019, is a decentralized protocol that mixes cryptocurrency transactions to obscure sender and recipient details. The tool, while valued by privacy advocates, has been accused by U.S. authorities of facilitating money laundering for hacking groups, including North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash in 2022, but subsequent court challenges forced the government to scale back certain aspects of its sanctions, a development Dragonfly cited as proof of the protocol’s legal standing.

Qureshi said that Dragonfly neither operated Tornado Cash nor had any contact with illicit users, emphasizing that it offered PepperSec the same level of guidance it provides to all portfolio companies.

He also revealed that the firm fully complied with a Department of Justice subpoena issued in 2023 and was told it is not a direct target of the ongoing investigation.

According to Qureshi, the government’s mention of Dragonfly during a recent court proceeding was an attempt to weaken Tornado Cash’s defense, potentially by complicating testimony from Dragonfly co-founder Tom Schmidt.

He argued that prosecuting an investor over the conduct of a portfolio company years after the fact would have a chilling effect on venture funding for privacy technologies and blockchain innovation.

Dragonfly’s statement comes amid heightened enforcement efforts against crypto privacy tools, which regulators view as a growing risk for illicit finance. The firm said it remains confident that the DOJ will not pursue charges, but it pledged to “vigorously defend” itself if necessary.

Venture capitalists are forming a new firm based on accumulating stablecoin-focused crypto project Ethena (ENA).

Special purpose acquisition company TLGY Acquisition, announced early on Monday that it had entered into an agreement for a business combination with StablecoinX Assets.

The two companies agreed to a roughly $360 million private investment in public equity (PIPE), including a $60 million investment from the Ethena Foundation itself, plus contributions from other high-profile investors in the space like Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Wintermute and more.

According to the press release, the VCs believe in “large-scale ENA accumulation” in order to provide shareholders exposure to the “secular stablecoin supercycle.”

Says Young Cho, CEO of both TLGY and SC Assets,

“As a top issuer of digital dollars alongside Tether and Circle, Ethena is a direct beneficiary of the growth in stablecoin adoption… But it is currently difficult for investors to capitalize on its strong position since the native token ENA is difficult to access in traditional capital markets. This transaction gives public market investors transparent, well-governed access to the Ethena ecosystem.

Deploying capital to accumulate ENA at scale is a deliberate, multiyear capital allocation strategy that will enable StablecoinX to capture the value driven by the secular surge in demand for digital dollars while compounding intrinsic value per share.”

At time of writing, ENA is trading at $0.53, up over 100% in July so far.

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

Shares of liquefied natural gas export terminal operator Venture Global (VG 8.17%) rallied 8.3% today, despite the company missing on both revenue and earnings in the first quarter.

Venture Global reported this morning, coming up short of analyst expectations, while lowering its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) outlook for the year.

Nevertheless, the stock rallied as management noted its second liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility would be up and running to full production earlier than expected, which will enable the company to sell LNG at very high spot prices.

Venture Global bouncing back after busted IPO

Venture Global just went public back in January amid much controversy. Venture Global’s valuation at its initial public offering (IPO) was $58 billion, or $25 per share, which was about 45% below the price the company had originally floated. Still, even that lower market capitalization proved optimistic, as the stock sold off hard amid tariff fears to a recent low of $6.75 following “Liberation Day” on April 2.

Venture Global is currently involved in legal arbitration with several customers that had signed up for contracted deliveries at fixed prices many years ago, which would commence once VG began commercial operations. But after spot prices for LNG rocketed higher following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the artificial intelligence (AI) data center boom, VG management exploited a loophole in its contracts as to what qualified as “commercial operations,” instead insisting that its early deliveries are occurring in what constitutes a “phased commissioning” stage.

In the first quarter, the company generated $2.9 billion in revenue, up 105%, with adjusted EBITDA up 94%. Despite those big increases, the numbers fell short of expectations, as VG’s first LNG export terminal, Calcasieu Pass, ramped up commercial operations beginning in April. However, management noted it now projects adjusted EBITDA to be in a range of $6.4 billion to $6.8 billion in 2025, down from prior guidance of $6.8 billion to $7.2 billion. The reason given was that project costs for the company’s second LNG export terminal, Plaquemines, are running higher than expected.

However, management also said it plans to ship full pre-commercial volumes from Plaquemines by the end of 2025, which was sooner than investors expected. While Plaquemines has lower-priced commercial contracts kicking in in 2027, the sooner volumes exported during the “formal commissioning” process will be able to be sold on the higher spot price market. Thus, the stock rallied on that bit of information.

Image source: Getty Images.

Venture Global is a tempting stock, but risky

Even after today’s surge, Venture Global’s stock is only back to $10.74, well below its IPO price and far below the initially hoped-for IPO price not too long ago. Therefore, it’s quite a tempting stock to dig into. That’s especially true as management has ambitious growth plans and a third LNG export facility, Calcasieu Pass 2, or CP2, scheduled to begin operations in 2026.

Investors, however, should be aware that not only will the price of VG’s LNG volumes come down once commercial contracts kick in, but the legal overhang from several customer lawsuits also adds to the uncertainty.

A venture capital giant is reportedly investing tens of millions of dollars into a Solana (SOL)-based decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) project.

Venture capital firm Paradigm is investing close to $50 million into AI startup Nous Research, a firm that specializes in human-centric language models and AI research, bringing its token valuation up to $1 billion, reports Fortune.

According to Fortune, Nous Research plans to utilize artificial intelligence to train its open-source language models as a means of eventually competing with top AI firms, such as OpenAI and DeepSeek.

However, one difference in the firm’s approach compared to the traditional one is that Nous wants to train AI models in a decentralized manner, using spare computing capacity from around the globe, rather than train their models in a central data center.

Nous Research co-founder Karan Malhotra told Fortune that he, in collaboration with a former member of OpenAI’s founding team, created a method that would allow for the training of AI models in such a way.

As stated by Malhotra to Fortune,

“We think of the incentive mechanism behind crypto to push people to actually utilize their idle compute [of] less as a donation but more as a transaction…

We don’t want to get kind of bogged down by the traditional view of how crypto operates when we’re a very serious research lab and an academic lab. This is really the only way in which we can make such a massive training run and such a democratic thing possible.”

Though Nous has chosen to build on top of the smart contract platform, no timeline was given as to when the AI training product will go live. The firm is still deciding whether or not to give out rewards in SOL.

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney