For years, the most avid investors in crypto startups have been firms that specialize in the category—with the notable exception of Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that got crypto religion early. Now, though, the most storied firms on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road are going from crypto curious to true believers.
This year, a quarter of the new investments by Sequoia Capital have been crypto related, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. In the latest example, Sequoia and Founders Fund are leading an investment round in a six-month-old crypto startup called Parallel Finance that values it at $250 million, Parallel founder Yubo Ruan confirmed. Accel, Sequoia, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners are among the top VC firms that have made more crypto investments this year than in any other.
And some of those firms are thinking about taking the next step, as Andreessen Horowitz did several years ago, and launching their own dedicated crypto funds. Bain Capital Ventures, for instance, is raising a $300 million fund dedicated to crypto, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Lightspeed recently held conversations about launching a crypto fund of its own, according to several people close to the firm. The size of Bain’s fund hasn’t been previously reported.