ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the UK Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) has approved former Northern Ireland Secretary John Baker to serve as an advisor to the Bitcoin investment firm Axiom. Baker will join the company's second venture capital fund, Axiom Venture Fund II, as a part-time advisor.Axiom announced in August this year plans to raise $75 million for its second venture capital fund. To mitigate potential risks, the committee has set several restrictions on Baker's appointment, including a ban on using government confidential information for Axiom's benefit for the next two years, prohibiting lobbying the UK government, and not providing advice to Axiom in areas related to his former ministerial role.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, venture capital in the cryptocurrency sector saw a significant decline in the third quarter before the election fervor of elected President Trump revived industry sentiment. PitchBook data shows that in the three months ending September 30, cryptocurrency startups attracted $1.7 billion in investment, a decrease of 31.3% from the previous quarter. The number of deals completed fell by 25.3% to 392.PitchBook senior analyst Robert Le wrote in the report, "We believe this adjustment is a natural and necessary component of a healthy cryptocurrency market." Le attributed the decline in cryptocurrency venture capital deals to macroeconomic factors, including increased market volatility and concerns about a recession in the U.S. Similar to the previous quarter, new infrastructure projects like blockchain continued to attract venture capitalists in the third quarter. Le stated that he expects further consolidation among cryptocurrency exchanges, custodians, and infrastructure companies in the future.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the AI-driven venture capital fund ai16z on the decentralized investment platform Daos.fun reached a market value of nearly $100 million after receiving a thumbs up from a16z partner Marc Andreessen. The fund was created by developer Shaw and currently holds about $1 million in assets, primarily investing in Degen Spartan AI tokens.Andreessen wrote in a post: "GAUNTLET THROWN," along with a screenshot of the robot's X account. In another post, Andreessen stated: "Hey, I have that T-shirt," and included a screenshot of the ai16z fund's avatar. Following this, ai16z's market value peaked at $96.6 million, before falling back to around $50 million.It is reported that the ai16z fund uses an AI model to simulate Andreessen's investment decisions, making investments based on suggestions from DAO members. The weight of investment suggestions depends on the number of tokens held by members and the historical success rate of their recommendations. The fund is set to expire on October 24, 2025, and has already completed verification on the Jupiter exchange and Moonshot platform. The project plans to further reduce human intervention in the future to achieve AI autonomous trading decisions.

According to Cointelegraph, GnosisDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization behind Gnosis Chain, has approved a proposal to launch a $40 million venture fund aimed at accelerating early blockchain projects.GnosisDAO will contribute $20 million to the fund, with the remaining $20 million coming from external LPs. The fund is named GnosisVC Ecosystem and will prioritize investments in projects engaged in the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), decentralized infrastructure, and financial payment channels.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Information, asset management company VanEck has launched a $30 million venture capital fund, VanEck Ventures, to support the development of the crypto and AI industries, and will invest in early-stage crypto and AI startups.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, crypto analysts say that if crypto projects want to continue to receive healthy venture capital funding, the altcoin market needs to experience a significant rebound.Will Clemente, co-founder of Reflexivity Research, stated that unless altcoins see a "substantial bull market," fewer crypto projects will receive funding support, and the overall valuation of the altcoin market will decline.He said, "Given the increase in supply in the market, I expect funding to be more dispersed, and I am not confident about the occurrence of this rebound."

ChainCatcher news, Frank Chaparro, the Special Projects Director at The Block, and Laura Vidiella from MNNC Group published a joint opinion article calling on investors to focus on the long-term development of the crypto industry. Despite the poor performance of the crypto market in September 2024 and recent employment reports dampening market sentiment, the industry is still steadily developing from a macro perspective. Laura recently attended Korea Blockchain Week and hosted a panel discussion on the evolution of liquidity funds and venture capital funds.According to statistics, the number of funds focused on crypto investments worldwide has surged from about 50 in 2018 to over 1,150 currently. In comparison, there are about 4,000 registered hedge funds in the United States and approximately 30,000 globally. In terms of financing, the crypto industry raised over $72 billion from 2018 to 2023, while traditional venture capital in the U.S. raised over $600 billion during the same period.Although the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs at the beginning of 2024 brought high expectations, this year is more likely to be a transitional period. The current cycle should not be simply compared to previous cycles, as the industry landscape has changed dramatically. If investors feel frustrated, they can take a break or look at industry development trends from a longer-term perspective, which may provide better insights.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard's son Daniel Howard and partner Bhavin Vaid have announced the establishment of a crypto venture capital fund called Halo Capital. The fund has raised $25 million, aiming to bring a growth investor mindset to early-stage crypto projects.Halo Capital is headquartered in New York and has a broad investment scope, covering various fields from Bitcoin to decentralized artificial intelligence. The fund has invested in projects such as Bima Labs and Andrena, and has brought in about 20 partners to provide expert advice. Both founders come from the cryptocurrency-focused private equity firm 10T Holdings, and they began fundraising in March of this year, officially launching the fund's operations in June.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, Robot Ventures has raised $75 million for its early-stage cryptocurrency venture capital fund. Robot Ventures is an early investor in crypto startups such as EigenLayer, Lido Finance, and Flashbots. This is Robot Ventures' fourth fund, with investors including TrueBridge Capital Partners, Haun Ventures, Marc Andreessen, and Chris Dixon.

ChainCatcher news, according to a new quarterly report from PitchBook, cryptocurrency financing has grown by 2.5%, reaching $2.7 billion. Despite the increase in amount, the number of transactions has decreased by 12.5%.PitchBook senior analyst Robert Le stated, "Investors are concentrating capital on a narrower range of opportunities, marking a leap towards quality. A few years ago, their investments were more diversified across various sectors. Overall financing in 2024 is expected to grow by 20% or more compared to last year, reaching between $12 billion and $14 billion this year, up from about $10 billion last year."

ChainCatcher news, Arkham disclosed on X that it has identified fundraising addresses for 24 different projects, which have collectively raised $500 million on-chain.For example: Berachain ($100 million), Scroll ($87 million), Gnosis Safe ($44 million), Movement Labs ($21.2 million).

ChainCatcher news, according to informed sources, despite signs of recovery in the Web3 market, the European venture capital firm XAnge has quietly stopped raising funds for its first cryptocurrency venture capital fund.In 2022, the venture capital announced it was raising funds for its dedicated cryptocurrency fund, the Digital Ownership Fund, with a target size of 80 million euros, recruiting Luc Jodet, co-founder of the Paris Web3 luxury platform Arianee. However, now due to difficulties in securing enough supporters to complete the initial fundraising, its CEO Cyril Bertrand has stated that they will no longer raise funds for this cryptocurrency-specific fund.

ChainCatcher news, Hypersphere Ventures has opened its $130 million liquidity fund to external investors, which will employ Wall Street-style strategies to generate returns from crypto assets.The fund's staff comes from high-frequency trading firm Millennium and hedge fund Bridgewater. Hypersphere intends to adopt the multi-manager approach used by Millennium and Bridgewater to provide investors with niche trading strategies while maintaining low volatility.In addition, Hypersphere will also raise a new venture fund to invest in early-stage crypto projects. The company plans to raise $75 million for this venture capital fund, with fundraising set to begin in the fall.

ChainCatcher news, according to gamblinginsider, Ixia Capital has launched a $20 million global gaming venture capital fund aimed at nurturing high-growth projects in gaming, esports, Web3, and the cryptocurrency sector. The fund plans to support 25 startups over five years, providing not only funding but also strategic guidance and operational support.It is reported that Ixia Studio is currently launching six projects, including a sports NFT trading platform, a gaming loyalty rewards platform, a sports investment thought leadership platform, and applications for sports reporting and gaming engagement.

ChainCatcher news, venture capital firm Laton Ventures has announced the launch of a new fund with a size of $35 million to support the AI and Web3 gaming industry and promote the application of AI and Web3 technologies in gaming.It is reported that the fund primarily focuses on Pre-Seed and Seed stage projects and startups, and has currently invested in five game studios in the Turkish, European, and American markets.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, Tiger Global Management has raised about $2.2 billion for its latest venture capital fund, significantly below the $6 billion target, marking the smallest fundraising amount in nearly a decade. Last week, the final close of the Private Investment Partners 16 fund (PIP 16) marked the first time that Tiger Global's venture capital fund raised less money than in previous years. Tiger Global's previous fund of $12.7 billion was its largest ever. Reports indicate that Tiger Global is currently facing the toughest fundraising environment in years, with investors becoming more cautious about venture capital and private equity investments due to declining valuations and a lack of deals.It is reported that PIP 16 will primarily support startups in the enterprise technology sector, focusing on the United States and India, and will involve multi-year investments. PIP 16 has been in the market for about 18 months, longer than the time the company typically requires to lock in cash. An informed source stated that the company delayed the final closing time partly to give investors more time to adjust to the transition of former venture capital head Shleifer. Some clients also requested more time to sort out their internal budgets.Additionally, last November, the company announced that founder Chase Coleman would succeed venture capital head Scott Shleifer, who stepped down to become a senior advisor.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin.com, the Web3 investment platform Common Wealth has launched its first $2.4 million venture capital fund, Free VC Fund.Common Wealth stated that this is a completely free fund with no management fees, always liquid, and fully on-chain. The fund is open to the public and aims to ensure that access in the early stages of Web3 is in the hands of the communities it serves. Related activities for the fund will begin on February 21, 2024, and will be airdropped as slices (fund NFTs) to the winners of the activities.

ChainCatcher news, according to Mpost, Cryptomeria Capital has announced the launch of a new Web3 venture capital fund aiming to raise $50 million, with participation from European tech investment firm Axon Partners Group. The fund is currently receiving contributions from numerous traditional investors and Web3 stakeholders, institutional entities, and family offices from the EU, Middle East, and Asia.Currently, Cryptomeria Capital has multiple Web3 portfolios, including the synthetic asset protocol Kalata, the zkRollup network Intmax, the social trading platform Tradelize, the metaverse NFT marketplace MetaMundo, and the Layer 2+ DAO foundational protocol Metis.

ChainCatcher news, according to VentureBeat, Paper Ventures has launched a $25 million Web3 venture capital fund. The fund was raised through traditional hedge funds, family offices, exchanges, founders, and other early participants in the high-net-worth crypto space.It is reported that one of the partners, Blakey, is a co-founder of Ascensive Assets and an early supporter of Frax Finance, SEI, Polygon, Injective, Polkadot, Moonbeam, and Cosmos.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, in 2023, venture capitalists invested $10.7 billion in crypto and blockchain startups, a decrease of 68% from $33.3 billion in 2022. Most of these investments occurred at the beginning of the year, with a decline in the second half, although there was an increase in funding in November.Compared to 2022, the proportion of investments allocated to pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups increased in 2023, while the number of late-stage investments decreased. As for verticals, NFT/gaming, infrastructure, and Web3 maintained dominance in the number of investments, while other categories such as data, trading, and enterprise received less investment.