Researcher Reveals Largest Altcoin Holdings by Crypto VCs

by Arthur · February 17, 2023

Thor Hartvigsen, a data-driven DeFi researcher based in Copenhagen, has used the on-chain analytics tools of Watchers, Nansen, DeBank and Arkham to examine the altcoin holdings of the top 20 crypto funds. Together, these have a total of over 1,200 wallets.

In a thread on Twitter, Hartvigsen presents the eight largest VCs, their largest crypto holdings and recent investments. As the analyst points out, altcoin holdings can generally be considered an indication of strong investments. However, there is also no guarantee that VCs are “smart money,” since “they often act completely reckless.”

“Then use this information as you wish – to counter VCs or identify possible strong narratives / trades from the funds that are still alive today,” Hartvigsen emphasized, identifying Jump Trading as the largest crypto VC.

VC wallet hunt 🐳

The top 20 crypto funds have 1200+ wallets combined. I have followed these closely throughout January/February 🔎

I present 8 of the biggest VCs, their biggest holdings and recent investments👇 pic.twitter.com/SlCWGeOcla

— Thor⚡️Hartvigsen (@ThorHartvigsen) 16 February 2023

The company has a total balance of $3.8 billion, and the largest altcoin in the portfolio is Ethereum with $3.25 billion. Following behind are Shiba Inu ($328 million), MATIC ($81 million), USDC ($50 million), wBTC ($50 million), LINK ($20 million) and COMP ($14 million).

Smaller positions between $1 million and $10 million include: HFT, AVAX, SNX, CHZ, MASK, AAVE and Lido Finance (LDO). Hartvigsen notes that these are only EVM wallets and there are probably more wallets that include SOL and wETH on Solana.

The second largest crypto VC is Wintermute with a total balance of $401 million. This VC also has a majority stake in Ethereum ($301 million in wETH).

This position is followed by $47 million in OP, $22.2 million in LDO, $17 million in ETH, $7.5 million in GALA (the biggest increase this month), $7.3 million in FTM, $6.6 million in DYDX, $6 million in BLUR, $5.7 million in HFT and $5.1 million in MATIC.

Wintermute made its biggest sale in recent history in February, when it sold around $4 million worth of VC Ape Coin (APE).

Crypto VCs are betting big on LDO, ETH, MATIC

Paradigma follows in third place with a total balance of $382 million. Paradigm’s largest holding is Lido Finance (LDO) with $195 million, followed by $166.5 million in ETH and $22.47 million in MKR. Other investments include Optimism, Synthetix, DYDX, Osmosis, Uniswap, Starkware and others.

“Interestingly, Paradigm is one of the largest investors in Lido Finance. As of now, 79m of their 100m LDO chips are unlocked (fully unlocked on 1 May 2023),” commented Hartvigsen.

In fourth place comes a16z with $310 million in crypto. VC has been in the headlines recently for its influence on Uniswap’s vote to distribute on the BNB chain via Wormwhole. a16z controls more than 4% of all UNI tokens ($257 million in UNI). The second largest holdings of a16z are $15.5 million USDC/ETH LP and $13.7 million USDCOMP.

Following behind is Amber Group with $245 million, which also relies on Ethereum ($119 million in ETH). After that comes $74 million in USDC/USDT, $21.5 million in FET and $8.3 million in DYDX.

In particular, according to the analyst, Amber Group is most convinced by SWISE ($2.2 million). Also worth noting, a whopping $21.5 million in FET (FetchAI) was bought in the last three days.

VC Blockchain Capital owns about $87.2 million in crypto, with MATIC ($21 million), AAVE ($18.4 million), UNI ($15.7 million), ETH ($11 million) and RPL ($5 million dollars) as the largest holdings. Hartvigsen said:

Interesting to see MATIC as their biggest public position. Much of this was even acquired in 2023. Polygon is launching their zkEVM on March 27th. Meanwhile, Blockchain Cap also led zkSync’s Series C funding round with Dragonfly worth $200 million.

Dragonfly Capital has a total balance of $90.4 million in crypto and is also betting big on Lido Finance ($46 million), followed by TON ($13.3 million), MATIC ($10.6 million) and FXS ($7 million).

DeFiance Capital has a similar balance of $85 million in crypto, with much of it parked in stablecoins USDC, DAI and USDT ($57 million). Strikingly, DeFiance Capital also has its largest investment in Lido Finance ($17 million), followed by AAVE ($3.1 million) and DODO ($3 million).

At press time, Lido Finance (LDO) was trading at $2.80, just below crucial resistance near $2.85 before breaching a new all-time high.