What To Know:
- Dragonfly Capital raised a $650 million fourth fund, standing out amid a broader slowdown in crypto venture funding.
- Early investments in Polymarket and Rain helped secure investor confidence in the new fund.
- The firm is shifting focus toward tokenized real-world assets and fintech integration, reflecting a more institutional phase of the crypto market.
Venture capital company Dragonfly Capital has closed its fourth fund at $650 million. The move comes at a time when the global crypto industry continues to face a downturn. The raise stands out especially as many funds have struggled to attract new commitments and valuations have compressed across crypto companies.
The new fund follows a period of weak sentiment in crypto. Prices have fallen sharply from prior highs. Venture activity has slowed. Several funds have scaled back deployment or delayed raises. Moreover, Dragonfly’s ability to secure $650 million does imply continued institutional appetite for selective exposure to the sector, especially in areas tied to financial infrastructure.
Dragonfly Capital Secures Fund Amid Crypto Downturn
According to partner Rob Hadick, investor support for the new vehicle shows Dragonfly’s early positions in companies that have shown growth during the market cycle. These include prediction market platform Polymarket and stablecoin payment card provider Rain. Both companies sit at the intersection of crypto and financial services, a segment the firm has increasingly prioritised.
Dragonfly was founded in 2018 by Alex Pack and Bo Feng. In its early years, the firm navigated internal restructuring and a strategic exit from China following tighter regulations. Over time, leadership shifted to a core group that included Haseeb Qureshi and Tom Schmidt. Hadick joined from a traditional finance background in 2022, reinforcing the firm’s pivot toward financial applications of blockchain technology.
This shift has become central to Dragonfly’s investment thesis. Schmidt said the industry is entering a new phase in which crypto models evolve away from purely application-specific designs toward instruments that represent real-world assets such as equities, credit funds, and other financial products. This approach aligns crypto more closely with Wall Street structures and regulated financial markets.
The direction contrasts with earlier venture narratives that focused on consumer Web3 applications and decentralised social platforms. Dragonfly has instead preferred infrastructure, payments, and tokenised financial products. The firm believes these areas generate clearer revenue models and stronger long-term adoption paths.
Even with the weaker sentiment in the market, Dragonfly’s leadership argues that the broader trajectory for crypto remains intact. Schmidt noted that internet-native money grew from zero to a trillion-dollar asset class within roughly a decade, a pace that still shapes long-term expectations for the sector’s expansion.
The firm’s previous fund, raised before the latest market downturn, helped it back several high-growth companies and compete with larger venture platforms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm. That performance strengthened its reputation among institutional investors and contributed to renewed commitments for the latest fund.
Dragonfly’s leadership describes the current venture landscape as undergoing a sharp contraction, with many funds facing reduced capital inflows and fewer deal opportunities. Hadick characterised the period as a severe shakeout for crypto venture firms. Even so, Dragonfly continues to deploy capital, targeting companies that integrate blockchain rails with traditional financial services.
The firm operates from offices in New York and maintains a global investment focus. Its strategy revolves around identifying early-stage infrastructure and financial products that can scale alongside regulatory clarity and institutional adoption. Qureshi said the firm is planning to take a more active role in shaping the next stage of the industry as new capital flows back into the sector.
Dragonfly’s successful fund allocation could be partly attributed to its confidence in portfolio companies such as Polymarket, which has maintained strong user activity despite recent market slowdowns. The platform recently announced a strategic partnership with Circle. Under the partnership, Polymarket will transition from a bridged version of USDC on the Polygon network to native USDC. The move is expected to improve settlement efficiency and provide users with a more reliable dollar-denominated infrastructure.
Credit: Source link
