Best VCs for Protocol

30 venture capitalists actively investing in Protocol.

Active VCs

Funds

Deals

Founder & GP

Portal Ventures

Investing in early-stage crypto infrastructure and applications at Portal Ventures. Focused on backing technical founders building at the frontier of blockchain technology.

Pre-seedSeed

#2Fred Wilson

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Union Square Ventures (USV)

Backs 'trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and well-being by leveraging networks, platforms, and protocols.' The access thesis is the through-line: every investment should make s

$1M-$25M

Series ASeries B

#3Ricardo de Arruda

Partner, Investing & Research

Paradigm

Ricardo uses large-scale onchain data to distinguish real crypto adoption from activity manufactured by incentives or sybils. He focuses on new ecosystems, user acquisition and retention, token distri

Paradigm backs companies from first check through public markets, but neither the firm nor Ricardo publishes his personal check range or decision authority. Portfolio round totals and a historical firm-wide range are not treated as personal allocation evidence.

Pre-SeedSeedEarly Stage

#4Alpin Yukseloglu

Partner, Investing & Research

Paradigm

Alpin partners with crypto founders and researchers who have strong instincts about the future and the courage to follow them. His work centers on protocol, market, and mechanism design—especially sys

Paradigm says it backs founders at every stage from first check through public markets, but it does not publish Alpin's personal check range or decision authority. A 2024 firm filing described vehicle investments from $1M to $100M or more; that historical firm range is not treated as his current personal range.

Pre-SeedSeedEarly Stage

#5Brad Burnham

Co-Founder and Venture Partner

Union Square Ventures (USV)

Brad's published investing work centers on preserving the internet's permissionless, generative character. He has backed open communications and data infrastructure, decentralized protocols with incen

USV states that the firm writes $1 million to $30 million checks from the earliest stages onward. It does not publish Brad's personal range or authority; investments are discussed by the full partnership and decided collectively without a vote.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

#6Dan Robinson

General Partner & Head of Research

Paradigm

DeFi mechanism design, AMM theory, MEV research. Novel financial primitives and their mathematical foundations.

SeedSeries A

#7Stanko Nedic

Partner

V3V Ventures

Stanko invests in early-stage software, digital infrastructure and emerging technology, with a strong Web3 focus and an engineer's bias toward difficult, foundational systems. His current public filte

No Stanko-specific check range is public. A current third-party V3V profile reports a firm-level typical range of $100K–$1M at pre-seed/seed, while public round databases describe the larger rounds V3V joins rather than its own checks. Treat $100K–$1M as directional and confirm instrument, allocation and follow-on capacity directly.

Pre-seedSeedSelective later follow-on

#8Rodney Yesep

Partner

Hack VC

Rodney backs technical infrastructure that removes adoption bottlenecks for high-value crypto use cases. His work favors modular, open AI stacks that solve data, compute and availability; stablecoin c

No personal or standard ticket is published. Hack VC is an earliest-stage investor and its articles identify the firm as leading rounds at pre-seed, seed and Series A; announced round leadership does not reveal Rodney's individual check authority.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

#9Anay Simunovic

Investor

Blockchain Capital

Anay focuses on the intersection of consumer behavior and crypto. Her work favors products that hide blockchain complexity inside a trusted, culturally native experience: mobile-first financial platfo

No personal check range or unilateral authority is publicly disclosed. Blockchain Capital is a multi-stage investor in equity and crypto assets; its September 2026 NG.CASH article announces a $15M BCAP investment, but that figure is a specific firm investment co-authored with a GP, not Anay's standard ticket.

SeedEarly StageMulti-Stage

#10Jonah Burian

Investor

Blockchain Capital

Jonah studies where value and power accrue as crypto infrastructure matures. He argues that open rails can unbundle closed payment networks; user-owning applications can compress infrastructure margin

No personal check range or deal authority is disclosed. Jonah is an Investor focused on research and new opportunities at a multi-stage firm; public work and academic research demonstrate thesis depth, not a standard individual ticket.

ResearchSeedEarly Stage

#11Raymond Feng

Technical Partner

Lightspeed Faction

As Faction's Technical Partner, Raymond evaluates early blockchain companies across the stack, from base infrastructure to applications. The safest evidence-supported interpretation of his mandate is

No personal check-size range is published. Faction invests at Seed and Series A through equity and tokens; its fund size and portfolio rounds are not Raymond's personal allocation parameters.

SeedSeries AToken Networks

#12Samuel Harrison

Managing Partner

Lightspeed Faction

Samuel backs early crypto infrastructure and protocols that make blockchain useful at scale. His public focus includes wallets, brokerages, developer tools, remittances, stablecoin and payment rails,

No personal check-size range is published. Faction invests at Seed and Series A using equity and tokens; its fund commitments and disclosed financing totals should not be interpreted as Samuel's standard check.

SeedSeries AToken Networks

#13Jonah Burian

Investor

Blockchain Capital

ResearchSeedEarly Stage

#14Yuan Han Li

Partner

Blockchain Capital

Yuan backs crypto-native founders with earned insight, behavioral resilience, learning velocity, and the ability to translate non-consensus ideas into enduring systems. His technical work spans modula

No verified personal check-size range is published. Blockchain Capital describes itself as a multi-stage crypto investor; Yuan's public work spans seed-stage selection through later protocol and company support, but no individual allocation authority should be inferred.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

#15Chris Burniske

Partner

Placeholder

Crypto valuation frameworks and portfolio theory. Co-creator of Placeholder's crypto thesis.

#16Joel Monegro

Partner

Placeholder

Fat protocol thesis and web3 infrastructure. Co-founder of Placeholder with Chris Burniske.

#17Rui Zhang

Managing Partner

gumi Cryptos Capital

Rui leads an early-stage, crypto-native firm with a builder-centric, long-time-preference and high-conviction approach. gCC invests across the blockchain stack, with particular application interest in

A December 2019 gCC FAQ said the firm typically wrote $250K–$1M checks. Treat this only as a dated historical range, not a current promise: gCC subsequently raised a $110M Fund II and has not published an updated range on its current site. Confirm stage, instrument, ownership and reserves directly.

Friends and familyPre-SeedSeed

#18Charlie Noyes

General Partner

Paradigm

DeFi infrastructure, MEV, protocol economics. Intersection of market microstructure and blockchain design.

#19Eddy Lazzarin

CTO, a16z Crypto

a16z crypto

Crypto infrastructure, developer platforms, open source and crypto incentives.

#20Thuan Le

Partner, Head of Founder Platform

Electric Capital

Thuan leads Electric Capital's Founder Platform rather than presenting a separate public investment thesis. Electric describes the platform as integral to its investment strategy after a decision is m

Firm-level: Electric Capital says it generally invests $1M-$50M in early-stage crypto companies and protocols. No personal check authority is public for Thuan.

Early Stage

#21José Maria Macedo

Partner / Head of Ventures

Delphi Ventures

Crypto research and quantitative analysis. Focus on tokenomics and protocol design.

#22Vishal Kankani

Partner

Multicoin Capital

Infrastructure, bridges, interoperability. Cross-chain communication and multi-chain future.

#23Franklin Bi

General Partner

Pantera Capital

Investing in blockchain infrastructure and tokens at Pantera Capital. Focuses on protocol-level investments with long-term value creation potential.

SeedSeries ASeries B

#24Joey Krug

Co-Chief Investment Officer

Pantera Capital

DeFi, prediction markets, protocol design. Creator of Augur.

SeedSeries A

#25Niraj Pant

Partner

Polychain Capital

ZK proofs, privacy infrastructure, developer tooling. Privacy is a fundamental right and crypto's key unsolved problem.

#26Luke Pearson

Partner

Polychain Capital

Zero-knowledge cryptography, privacy protocols, ZK-rollups.

#27Luke Saunders

Partner / Head of Delphi Labs

Delphi Ventures

Investing in DeFi and crypto infrastructure at Delphi Ventures. Focuses on technical evaluation of protocols and smart contract systems.

SeedSeries A

#28James Wo

Founder & CEO

DFG (Digital Finance Group)

Founded DFG to invest in blockchain infrastructure and digital assets globally. Bridges Eastern and Western crypto ecosystems with a focus on protocol-level investments.

SeedSeries ASeries B

#29Roy Learner

Partner

Framework Ventures

DeFi researcher and investor at Framework Ventures. Deep quantitative approach to evaluating DeFi protocols and their economic sustainability.

SeedSeries A

#30Philipp Essle

Investment Associate

Theta Capital

Fund of FundsVentureEarly Stage

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