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Bankless Ventures

USSGGBDEOtherAI/MLFintechDeep TechOther

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Investment thesis

Bankless Ventures is a crypto-native early-stage fund built on the thesis that a small fund with a powerful brand can punch well above its weight class. The firm targets seed and Series A deals in Web3, DeFi, blockchain infrastructure, and Crypto x AI, deploying ~$500K checks into the most competitive early-stage rounds — areas where larger VCs cannot fit. Its value proposition to portfolio companies is 'narrative liquidity and network liquidity': the ability to propagate stories at scale through the Bankless media platform (reaching billions in capital weekly) and to connect founders with the key people and capital they need. Fund I (under $40M, launched April 2023) focused on restaking, zkProver technology, Bitcoin L2s, and Crypto x AI, achieving a reported 2.3x MOIC as of January 2025. Fund II targets $50M to double down on the same frontier themes, with the firm describing its edge as being 'one to two degrees of separation from the key people a founder needs to give their project rocket fuel.'

Notable quotes

Keeping Fund I small (under $40 million) was the right call. Our nimble size has allowed us to slip meaningful checks into early-stage deals, where larger VCs simply cannot fit. The combination of a powerful brand with $500K check sizes has allowed us to consistently win the deals we've wanted at stages optimized for venture scale returns.

David Hoffman · https://www.research.bankless.ventures/p/were-opening-bankless-ventures-fund · 2025-02-20

Narrative liquidity is the ability to propagate a story in crypto — this industry thrives on stories, and we are good at telling stories that scale. We drive education and understanding about the sectors that we also invest in — to great effect.

David Hoffman · https://www.research.bankless.ventures/p/were-opening-bankless-ventures-fund · 2025-02-20

We've all been angel investing individually for years, and now we're putting all that time and energy into Bankless Ventures to accelerate the bankless movement and are able to bring along select LPs to participate.

Ben Lakoff · https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/03/02/hosts-of-bankless-podcast-raising-35m-crypto-venture-fund-sources · 2023-03-02

Recent investments

CompanyRoundSizeDate
MegapotPre-Seed$5m2026-03-26
Tenbin LabsSeed$7m2026-01-27
MonadSeed2024-01-01
Ether.fiSeed2023-01-01
Espresso SystemsSeed2023-01-01
Movement LabsSeed2023-01-01
Puffer FinanceSeed2023-01-01
SuccinctSeed2024-01-01
0G LabsSeed2024-01-01
Renzo ProtocolSeed2023-01-01

Frequent co-investors

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