Layer 1

15 VCs and 84 funds investing in Layer 1

VCs investing in Layer 1

Joe Eagan

Partner

95%

Polychain Capital

Investing in blockchain infrastructure and tokens at Polychain Capital, one of the most prominent crypto-native funds.

SeedSeries ASeries B

Raye Hadi

Research Associate, Digital Assets

88%

ARK Invest

Check: Not applicable as a personal founder check. Raye is a digital-assets research associate supporting ARK's managed investment strategies; the cited sources do not establish personal venture check-writing authority or a standard startup ticket.

Raye analyzes how cryptoassets can disrupt legacy financial systems, with particular depth in stablecoin architecture and DeFi application economics. He evaluates networks and tokens through reserves, legal claims, peg resilience, governance, accessibility, incentives and value capture, while tracking the shift of economic activity from base layers toward applications such as exchanges, lending, cards, prediction markets and tokenized assets.

Liquid CryptoassetsPublic MarketsThematic Research

Banafsheh Fathieh

General Partner

88%

Lightspeed Faction

Check: No personal check-size range is published. Faction invests at Seed and Series A through both equity and tokens; the firm's reported fund size and company round totals are not Banafsheh's personal range.

Banafsheh backs early blockchain companies and token networks that create fundamental utility. Her public discussions emphasize the infrastructure or 'plumbing' of crypto, globally relevant financial systems, and matching an application to the chain whose security, performance, and ecosystem fit its use case. Her personal motivation is informed by seeing how broken banking and state-controlled money affect people outside stable financial systems.

SeedSeries AToken Networks

Matt Huang

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

85%

Paradigm

Backs transformative crypto protocols and infrastructure. Crypto is the most important tech revolution since the internet.

SeedSeries ASeries B

Rodney Yesep

Partner

85%

Hack VC

Check: 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.

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 chains that make the payment asset itself the gas and abstract crypto friction; and DeFi ecosystems whose consensus, liquidity and incentives align applications, validators and users. He looks for strong teams, correct problem selection and evidence of compounding ecosystem traction.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

Julien Passagne

Venture Partner

85%

CV VC

Check: CV VC publicly invests up to $500,000 in qualifying pre-seed and seed companies. CV Pad and launchpad transactions can have different token terms; no reliable public source establishes Julien's personal allocation authority.

Julien brings a technical, crypto-native lens to early blockchain and AI opportunities. His background spans building a Big Four blockchain practice, operating at a Layer-1 company, bootstrapping an eight-figure fund, and leading investment decisions for a token launchpad. Within CV VC's current mandate, the strongest fit is defensible frontier infrastructure—especially AI and autonomous systems intersecting with verifiable ownership, transactions, and coordination—rather than token narrative alone.

Pre-SeedSeedToken Launch

Zi-hao Chen

Partner

82%

NGC Ventures

Check: No personal or firm ticket is disclosed on NGC's site. Zi's partner title, accelerator mentorship and infrastructure responsibilities show meaningful technical involvement but do not prove a standard range or unilateral decision authority.

Zi focuses on blockchain infrastructure from research through live network operation. He evaluates execution bottlenecks, layer-2 and appchain architecture, EVM compatibility and parallel processing, while StakeX exposes him to validator operations across networks such as NYM, Algorand, SKALE and Avalanche. The result is a practical lens on whether protocol performance claims survive testnets, incentives and production operations.

SeedEarly StageTestnet

Azi Mandias

Investor

82%

CoinFund

Check: No personal check range or led CoinFund investment is publicly disclosed. Azi joined the investment team in July 2026; his official profile cites earlier seed investments in Osmosis and Ondo, but those do not establish a current CoinFund ticket or independent authority.

Azi looks for sovereign, user-controlled computing across crypto and AI. His interests span decentralized AI, novel consumer applications, applied privacy, new Layer 1 designs and post-quantum infrastructure. Founder experience sharpened his focus on timing, distribution, capital formation and sustainable business models: a technically correct thesis can still be too early or fail to reach a durable market.

Pre-SeedSeedEarly Stage

Wayne Zhu

General Partner

80%

NGC Ventures

Check: No first-party personal or firm check range is published. Third-party directories repeat a $100K–$5M estimate, but it is excluded here because NGC's own site does not substantiate it; founders should confirm stage and ticket directly.

Wayne's record points to foundational network investing informed by public-market research: he supported Solana and Algorand early, before their ecosystems became established, and NGC's current portfolio spans base layers, infrastructure, DeFi, data, compute and interchain systems. His likely edge is connecting protocol economics and technical roadmaps to market adoption across Asian and global ecosystems.

SeedEarly StageNetwork Formation

Paul Veradittakit

Managing Partner

75%

Pantera Capital

Broadly focused crypto VC. One of the most prolific investors in the space.

SeedSeries ASeries B

Curtis Spencer

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

72%

Electric Capital

Co-founder of Electric Capital. Uses data-driven analysis to identify the most promising crypto ecosystems by tracking developer activity and code commits.

SeedSeries ASeries B

Do Kwon

Founder of Terra (Convicted)

65%

Formerly the creator of Terra/Luna, focused on algorithmic stablecoins and DeFi infrastructure. Currently facing legal proceedings related to Terra's collapse.

Token

Celia Wan

Principal

62%

Dragonfly

Investing in crypto infrastructure and DeFi at Dragonfly. Focused on the intersection of technology and narrative in crypto markets.

SeedSeries A

Nick White

Co-Founder & CEO

57%

1confirmation

Concentrated, conviction-driven crypto investing. Backs projects building fundamental infrastructure for decentralized systems with a long time horizon.

SeedSeries A