Billionaire Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Ventures Fund I LP is on track to raise up to $180 million by June to back early-stage crypto and blockchain startups, with a focus on payments and stablecoins.
According to unnamed sources cited in an April 17 Bloomberg report, the fund has already surpassed its initial $150 million target and is expected to close with between $175 million and $180 million.
The final close is scheduled for the end of June. Galaxy has not made the figures public, and a spokesperson declined to comment.
Galaxy Ventures Fund I invests in early-stage companies building infrastructure and financial tools for the crypto economy. Its current portfolio includes synthetic dollar issuer Ethena, stablecoin-focused DeFi protocol M^Zero, layer-1 blockchain Monad, asset tokenisation chain Plume, and Renzo, which supports Ethereum restaking via EigenLayer.
The fund had its first close in June 2024, when Galaxy Asset Management announced it had raised $113 million. At the time, the firm said the venture fund would target startups building crypto protocols, software, and financialized applications.
“This fund will strengthen our commitment to fostering innovation in the digital asset space,” Galaxy’s global head of asset management, Steve Kurz, said in a July press release, “enabling us to back visionary startups and gain unparalleled insights into the emerging technologies that will shape both our company and the future of finance.”
Led by general partners Will Nuelle and Mike Giampapa, the fund aims to build a portfolio of around 30 investments focused on helping institutions and startups participate in the onchain economy.
Galaxy’s venture operations were previously moved under its asset management division before the launch of this fund. Its strong fundraising progress comes despite broader headwinds in the sector, where crypto VC activity has been slow to recover.
In Q1 2025, U.S. crypto venture deals fell 22% year-on-year to roughly $1.3 billion, according to Pitchbook. Much of the capital has shifted to artificial intelligence, which absorbed 58% of global VC dollars during the same period.
A February report from the analytics firm highlighted just how cautious the market has become. Despite Bitcoin hitting $100,000 in late 2024, median crypto VC deal sizes had dropped nearly 90% since 2018.
At the time, PitchBook’s Robert Le said the days of raising capital with just a white paper were long gone, with today’s founders needing “a significant amount of traction or something else other than a technical white paper.”
Nevertheless, Le hoped for a rebound in 2025 and projected over $18 billion in venture capital to flow into crypto.
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