Exclusive: Top crypto VCs like Paradigm and a16z see portfolio values shrink amid market downturn and distributions to investors

The biggest names in crypto venture weren’t immune to the sudden collapse in the digital asset market in 2025. Top outfits like Paradigm and Pantera Capital saw their assets under management shrink amid the downturn, according to previously unreported filings I obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cryptocurrencies are volatile, sometimes rocketing up in price with one tweet from one volatile man. (Elon Musk, President Donald Trump, or Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao… take your pick.) And veteran crypto venture capitalists have weathered their fair share of bear and bull markets, watching their holdings soar in value during the NFT hype cycle of 2021 to only see their portfolios plummet in the ensuing “crypto winter.”

In other words, short-term changes in the value of a crypto venture fund’s portfolio aren’t usually a sign of performance. And assets under management are poor barometers of a venture fund’s success, generally. Ultimately, top-notch investors are supposed to exit companies and give money back to their limited partners.

Still, digging into crypto VCs’ holdings provides a glimpse into their funds’ inner workings. 

Take, for example, a16z crypto. The total assets under management for its four crypto funds plummeted almost 40% between 2024 and 2025 to $9.5 billion—even as its parent Andreessen Horowitz saw its holdings balloon past $100 billion, according to data from the SEC. 

That decrease is partly because the venture giant began to distribute capital back to investors from its first three funds, according to sources familiar with the matter, who spoke anonymously to discuss private business dealings. One source told me that a16z crypto timed the distributions to coincide with the 2025 crypto market’s highs. In fact, the net DPI, or distributions to paid-in capital, for a16z’s first crypto fund was 5.4, according to Newcomer. Those returns are stellar compared to those from other VCs who raised in 2018,........

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