Crypto venture firm Paradigm just closed a $1.2 billion fourth fund, and the money isn’t going exclusively to blockchain startups anymore.
The firm announced Wednesday that its latest fund will back AI, robotics, autonomous hardware, and other emerging tech — while keeping crypto at the center. “Sufficiently steep exponentials are indistinguishable from magic,” the firm said, and they’re betting on more of those exponentials than ever.
Founded in 2018 by Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm became one of crypto’s biggest investors. Its previous funds include a $2.5 billion crypto fund in 2021 and an $850 million early-stage blockchain fund in 2024.
The new fund’s portfolio already spans some notable names. On the crypto side: Hyperliquid, Kalshi, and Tempo (a stablecoin-focused blockchain co-founded with Stripe). Beyond crypto: autonomous drone developer Zipline, space defense startup True Anomaly, and Nous Research — the team behind Hermes Agent.
Paradigm has also been building internal projects like Ethereum dev tools Foundry and Reth, the AI agent project Centaur, and EVMbench, a blockchain security benchmark developed alongside OpenAI.
The timing makes sense. Crypto companies are increasingly building infrastructure for AI agents that need to move money and complete transactions autonomously. Coinbase and Stripe have both rolled out payment tools aimed at giving AI agents wallet access. Paradigm’s broader mandate reflects where the money is flowing.
Managing partner Alana Palmedo put it simply on X: “Now we’re doubling down as frontiers are colliding across AI, crypto, space, deep tech, energy.”
