Observation of crypto investment institutions in 2025: star projects and the promise of decentralization

In 2025, the cryptocurrency industry will enter a stage of deep development. Top crypto investment institutions have a profound impact on the entire industry by injecting capital, guiding market trends, and shaping the direction of technological development. These institutions promote project success in different tracks, while also facing challenges, and the process reveals their strategic vision and actual attitude towards the commitment to decentralization. This article will explore the areas of focus of top investment institutions, asset management scale, star project performance, 2025 forecasts, and actual strength of support for decentralization.

1.Andreessen Horowitz (a16z Crypto)  

- Focus areas: Web3 infrastructure, Layer-2 expansion, decentralized finance (DeFi) and AI blockchain integration.  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$12 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Successful Cases: Optimism (Layer-2 Extension) has greatly improved the scalability of Ethereum, and Dapper Labs (NFT Ecosystem) has expanded the field of crypto art and entertainment.

  - Challenges: Although a16z strongly supports modular architecture, its deep involvement in project governance has caused controversy over centralization.

- 2025 Forecast: Continue to promote the integration of AI and blockchain, and invest in autonomous AI agents and cross-chain infrastructure.

- Decentralization Support: Funds are concentrated in decentralized protocols, but the control of governance rights is relatively strong, and the commitment to decentralization is controversial.

2. Paradigm

- Focus areas: zero-knowledge proof (ZK), DeFi innovation, decentralized exchanges, cross-chain interoperability.  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$8 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Successful Cases: Uniswap v4 promotes DEX innovation; StarkWare has made breakthrough progress in zero-knowledge proof technology.  

  - Challenges: StarkWare's privacy solution has limited application scope, and the community has reservations about its high technical threshold.  

- 2025 Prediction: zk-SNARKs privacy solutions and dynamic DeFi strategies will become more popular.  

- Decentralization Support: Committed to community-led governance, but Paradigm's advisory role raises questions about centralization.

3. Binance Labs  

- Focus areas: BSC ecosystem, GameFi, DeFi and real world assets (RWA).  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$7 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Success Stories: PancakeSwap became the top DEX on BSC, and Venus Protocol provided a decentralized lending solution.  

  - Challenges: Balance the relationship between investment and CEX token listing, and evaluate the impact on the decentralized competitive environment of the track.  

- Forecast for 2025: The GameFi track will continue to expand, and the BSC ecosystem will attract more institutional adoption.  

- Decentralized Support: Strong reliance on the Binance platform, and weak commitment to decentralization.

4. Sequoia Capital Crypto

- Focus areas: DeFi protocols, Layer-1 public chains, blockchain SaaS solutions.  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$5.5 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Successful Cases: The rapid development of the Solana ecosystem and Chainlink's oracle network provide strong support for DeFi.  

  - Challenges: Projects on NFT and SaaS solutions did not perform as expected.  

- Forecast for 2025: Modular blockchain architecture and BaaS model will become popular.  

- Decentralization Support: Support decentralized projects while paying attention to the profitability of centralized services.

5. Multicoin Capital  

- Focus areas: Layer-1 public chain, decentralized storage, tokenized real-world assets (RWA).  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$4.2 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Successful Cases: The Graph excels in data indexing; Render Network provides a solution for decentralized GPU rendering.  

  - Challenges: RWA projects have high legal and compliance risks, and market acceptance is growing slowly.  

- 2025 Forecast: The market size of tokenized RWA may exceed 300 billion US dollars.  

- Decentralization Support: Strongly advocate decentralized applications and governance models.

6. Coinbase Ventures  

- Focus areas: stablecoins, Layer-2 solutions, DeFi applications.  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$3 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Success Stories: The launch of the Base network lowered the entry barrier for developers; Circle promoted the popularity of USDC.  

  - Challenges: The stablecoin sector faces stricter regulation, which may limit growth.  

- 2025 Forecast: Stablecoins will dominate the cross-border payment sector.  

- Decentralization Support: Focus on practicality, low degree of decentralization.

7. Pantera Capital 

- Focus areas: DeFi, Ethereum ecosystem, GameFi and real-world asset tokenization (RWA).  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$5 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Success Stories: Filecoin promotes the popularity of decentralized storage; Balancer provides innovative solutions for DeFi automated market makers.  

  - Challenges: GameFi-related investments grew at a slower rate than expected, lacking breakthrough user growth.  

- 2025 Forecast: The integration of games and the metaverse will drive a new round of cryptocurrency adoption, and the tokenized RWA market will expand significantly.  

- Decentralization Support: Firmly support the construction of a decentralized ecosystem and focus on the long-term value of open networks.

8. Polychain Capital

- Focus areas: DAO governance, decentralized storage, cross-chain interoperability and modular blockchain.

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$4 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Successful Cases: Avalanche provides a high-performance Layer-1 solution; Yearn Finance helps improve the efficiency of DeFi's revenue aggregation.  

  - Challenges: Facing fierce competition and the risk of lagging technological progress in cross-chain solution investments.  

- Forecast for 2025: DAO-driven governance models will become popular, and the application of modular blockchain architectures will be further expanded.  

- Decentralization Support: Highly supports the development of decentralized governance and infrastructure, and is a firm advocate of decentralization.

9. Digital Currency Group (DCG) 

- Focus areas: Institutional DeFi, cryptocurrency exchanges and tokenized assets.  

- Assets under management: ≈US$6 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Success Stories: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust becomes an institutional investment vehicle for Bitcoin; Foundry provides leading mining infrastructure support.  

  - Challenges: The centralization of mining and the centralized management of trust products have sparked industry criticism.  

- 2025 Forecast: Tokenized securities will attract more institutional investors and promote the mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies as financial instruments.  

- Decentralization Support: Decentralization support is weak due to its reliance on centralized investment vehicles.

10. Delphi Digital 

- Focus areas: Web3 infrastructure, NFT ecology, DeFi innovation and decentralized science (DeSci).  

- Asset management scale: ≈ US$3 billion.  

- Star Projects:

  - Successful Cases: Axie Infinity promotes the rise of the GameFi concept; Aave excels in the DeFi lending field.  

  - Challenges: The actual profitability of DeSci-related projects has not yet emerged, and the user growth rate is slow.  

- Forecast for 2025: Decentralized science will be further integrated into the blockchain, and the application of NFT in identity management and equity distribution will expand.  

- Decentralized Support: Actively promote decentralized science and community-led governance, and provide a more open collaboration platform for the crypto ecosystem.