Crypto enterprise agency Dragonfly Capital accomplished a $650 million fourth fund, marking one of many largest raises within the sector at a time when many blockchain-focused VCs are struggling, Managing Associate Haseeb Qureshi mentioned.
“It’s a bizarre time to rejoice,” Qureshi wrote on a social media put up on Tuesday, describing low spirits and “the gloom of a bear market” for crypto. Nevertheless, he famous that Dragonfly has traditionally raised capital throughout downturns, together with the 2018 ICO crash and simply earlier than the 2022 Terra collapse, ‘vintages,’ he mentioned, finally turned the agency’s finest performers.
In September, the agency mentioned it was aiming to boost $500 million for its fourth fund, which might goal early-stage tasks. It has not but recognized any of them. In Could 2023, Dragonfly Capital raised $650 million for its third crypto fund for later-stage firms.
‘Largest guess but’
The brand new automobile comes as token costs slumped this 12 months and fundraising throughout crypto ventures has slowed sharply. Bitcoin has misplaced roughly 46% of its worth since its all-time excessive of greater than $126,000 in October of final 12 months, and the crypto downtrend has worn out greater than $1.4 trillion in market cap.
Whereas market sentiment stays bearish, Qureshi is bullish on crypto’s monetary use instances, saying the sector “is exploding,” whereas different non-financial use instances are failing. In actual fact, Dragonfly has more and more leaned into crypto-financial infrastructure, from stablecoins to tokenization and on-chain funds, reflecting a broader shift away from speculative Web3 functions and towards blockchain-based monetary companies.
“Stablecoins are consuming the world. DeFi has grown so large it is rivaling CeFi. Monetary establishments world wide are racing to construct out their crypto methods. And prediction markets have gotten essentially the most trusted supply of reality on the web,” he wrote.
Qureshi additionally famous the expansion in Dragonfly’s current investments, together with Polymarket, Ethena, Rain, and Mesh, as examples of his thesis that crypto’s monetary use instances are having a second.
His feedback come after VC corporations at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 struck a cautious tone in regards to the state of the crypto market amid prevailing bearish sentiment. The crypto VCs that included Qureshi, Most Frequency Ventures’ Mo Shaikh and Pantera Capital’s Paul Veradittakit all echoed the identical sentiment: put money into what’s working, like stablecoins and tokenizations, whereas selectively betting on sectors resembling AI and prediction markets.
Qureshi appears to be doubling down on the concept the crypto business is not lifeless, regardless of the gloom, however simply realigning and famous that the brand new fund is his agency’s “greatest guess but that the crypto revolution remains to be early in its exponential.”
Fortune was first to report Dragonfly’s current elevate.