Best VCs for Protocols

17 venture capitalists actively investing in Protocols.

Active VCs

Funds

Deals

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Union Square Ventures (USV)

Backs 'trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and well-being by leveraging networks, platforms, and protocols.' The access thesis is the through-line: every investment should make s

$1M-$25M

Series ASeries B

#2Brad Burnham

Co-Founder and Venture Partner

Union Square Ventures (USV)

Brad's published investing work centers on preserving the internet's permissionless, generative character. He has backed open communications and data infrastructure, decentralized protocols with incen

USV states that the firm writes $1 million to $30 million checks from the earliest stages onward. It does not publish Brad's personal range or authority; investments are discussed by the full partnership and decided collectively without a vote.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

#3Alpin Yukseloglu

Partner, Investing & Research

Paradigm

Alpin partners with crypto founders and researchers who have strong instincts about the future and the courage to follow them. His work centers on protocol, market, and mechanism design—especially sys

Paradigm says it backs founders at every stage from first check through public markets, but it does not publish Alpin's personal check range or decision authority. A 2024 firm filing described vehicle investments from $1M to $100M or more; that historical firm range is not treated as his current personal range.

Pre-SeedSeedEarly Stage

#4Stanko Nedic

Partner

V3V Ventures

Stanko invests in early-stage software, digital infrastructure and emerging technology, with a strong Web3 focus and an engineer's bias toward difficult, foundational systems. His current public filte

No Stanko-specific check range is public. A current third-party V3V profile reports a firm-level typical range of $100K–$1M at pre-seed/seed, while public round databases describe the larger rounds V3V joins rather than its own checks. Treat $100K–$1M as directional and confirm instrument, allocation and follow-on capacity directly.

Pre-seedSeedSelective later follow-on

#5Anay Simunovic

Investor

Blockchain Capital

Anay focuses on the intersection of consumer behavior and crypto. Her work favors products that hide blockchain complexity inside a trusted, culturally native experience: mobile-first financial platfo

No personal check range or unilateral authority is publicly disclosed. Blockchain Capital is a multi-stage investor in equity and crypto assets; its September 2026 NG.CASH article announces a $15M BCAP investment, but that figure is a specific firm investment co-authored with a GP, not Anay's standard ticket.

SeedEarly StageMulti-Stage

#6Raymond Feng

Technical Partner

Lightspeed Faction

As Faction's Technical Partner, Raymond evaluates early blockchain companies across the stack, from base infrastructure to applications. The safest evidence-supported interpretation of his mandate is

No personal check-size range is published. Faction invests at Seed and Series A through equity and tokens; its fund size and portfolio rounds are not Raymond's personal allocation parameters.

SeedSeries AToken Networks

#7Samuel Harrison

Managing Partner

Lightspeed Faction

Samuel backs early crypto infrastructure and protocols that make blockchain useful at scale. His public focus includes wallets, brokerages, developer tools, remittances, stablecoin and payment rails,

No personal check-size range is published. Faction invests at Seed and Series A using equity and tokens; its fund commitments and disclosed financing totals should not be interpreted as Samuel's standard check.

SeedSeries AToken Networks

#8Rodney Yesep

Partner

Hack VC

Rodney backs technical infrastructure that removes adoption bottlenecks for high-value crypto use cases. His work favors modular, open AI stacks that solve data, compute and availability; stablecoin c

No personal or standard ticket is published. Hack VC is an earliest-stage investor and its articles identify the firm as leading rounds at pre-seed, seed and Series A; announced round leadership does not reveal Rodney's individual check authority.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

#9Yuan Han Li

Partner

Blockchain Capital

Yuan backs crypto-native founders with earned insight, behavioral resilience, learning velocity, and the ability to translate non-consensus ideas into enduring systems. His technical work spans modula

No verified personal check-size range is published. Blockchain Capital describes itself as a multi-stage crypto investor; Yuan's public work spans seed-stage selection through later protocol and company support, but no individual allocation authority should be inferred.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries A

#10Chris Burniske

Partner

Placeholder

Crypto valuation frameworks and portfolio theory. Co-creator of Placeholder's crypto thesis.

#11Rui Zhang

Managing Partner

gumi Cryptos Capital

Rui leads an early-stage, crypto-native firm with a builder-centric, long-time-preference and high-conviction approach. gCC invests across the blockchain stack, with particular application interest in

A December 2019 gCC FAQ said the firm typically wrote $250K–$1M checks. Treat this only as a dated historical range, not a current promise: gCC subsequently raised a $110M Fund II and has not published an updated range on its current site. Confirm stage, instrument, ownership and reserves directly.

Friends and familyPre-SeedSeed

#12Charlie Noyes

General Partner

Paradigm

DeFi infrastructure, MEV, protocol economics. Intersection of market microstructure and blockchain design.

#13Thuan Le

Partner, Head of Founder Platform

Electric Capital

Thuan leads Electric Capital's Founder Platform rather than presenting a separate public investment thesis. Electric describes the platform as integral to its investment strategy after a decision is m

Firm-level: Electric Capital says it generally invests $1M-$50M in early-stage crypto companies and protocols. No personal check authority is public for Thuan.

Early Stage

#14Vishal Kankani

Partner

Multicoin Capital

Infrastructure, bridges, interoperability. Cross-chain communication and multi-chain future.

#15Niraj Pant

Partner

Polychain Capital

ZK proofs, privacy infrastructure, developer tooling. Privacy is a fundamental right and crypto's key unsolved problem.

#16Luke Pearson

Partner