Thor Hartvigsen, a data-driven DeFi researcher based in Copenhagen, used on-chain analytics tools from Watchers, Nansen, DeBank, and Arkham to study the altcoin holdings of the 20 largest crypto funds. . Combined, he has over 1,200 wallets in total.
In a Twitter thread, Hartvigsen present 8 largest VCs, largest crypto holdings, and recent investments. As analysts point out, altcoin holdings can generally be seen as a strong investment signal. But there is also no guarantee that VCs are “smart money”.
“So use this information however you like. You can counter VCs or identify strong stories and deals from still-lived funds.”
VC wallet hunting 🐳
The top 20 cryptocurrency funds have a total of over 1200 wallets. I’ve been watching these closely over January and February 🔎
Here are the 8 biggest VCs, biggest holdings and recent investments 👇 pic.twitter.com/SlCWGeOcla
— Thor⚡️Hartvigsen (@ThorHartvigsen) February 16, 2023
The company has a total balance of $3.8 billion and the largest altcoin in its portfolio is Ethereum at $3.25 billion. This is followed by Shiba Inu ($328M), MATIC ($81M), USDC ($50M), wBTC ($50M), LINK ($20M) and COMP ($14M).
Small $1M to $10M positions include HFT, AVAX, SNX, CHZ, MASK, AAVE and Lido Finance (LDO). Hartvigsen points out that these are only his EVM wallets and that Solana has several wallets including his SOL and wETH.
The second largest cryptocurrency VC is Wintermute with a total balance of $401 million. This VC also has a majority on Ethereum ($301 million in wETH).
This position was followed by $47M in OP, $22.2M in LDO, $17M in ETH, $7.5M in GALA (largest increase this month), $7.3M in FTM, $6.6M in DYDX and BLUR. $6 million, $5.7 million in HFT, $5.1 million. 1 million in MATIC.
Wintermute sold nearly $4 million worth of VC Ape Coin (APE) in February, the largest sale in recent history.
Crypto VC bet big on LDO, ETH and MATIC
Paradigma is number three with a total balance of $382 million. Paradigma’s largest holding is Lido Finance (LDO) at $195 million with $166.5 million in ETH and $22.47 million in MKR. Other investments include Optimism, Synthetix, DYDX, Osmosis, Uniswap, Starkware and more.
“Interestingly, Paradigm is one of the largest investors in Lido Finance. Currently, 79m of 100m LDO tokens are unlocked (fully unlocked on May 1, 2023).” commented Hartvigsen.
In fourth place is a16z, who holds $310 million in crypto assets. The VC recently made headlines for influencing Uniswap’s vote on his deployment to the BNB chain via Wormwhole. a16z controls over 4% of all his UNI tokens ($257 million in UNI). The next holdings for a16z are 15.5 million USDC/ETH LP and 13.7 million USDCOMP.
The second is Amber Group at $245 million, which also relies heavily on Ethereum ($119 million in ETH). It is followed by USDC/USDT at $74 million, FET at $21.5 million and DYDX at $8.3 million.
Notably, among all liquid staking providers, Amber Group has the most confidence in SWISE ($2.2 million), according to analysts. Also worth noting is that his entire $21.5 million in FET (FetchAI) has been bought in the last three days.
VC Blockchain Capital owns approximately $87.2 million in cryptocurrencies, including MATIC ($21 million), AAVE ($18.4 million), UNI ($15.7 million), ETH ($11 million), RPL ($5 million) ) is the largest asset. Hartwissen said:
It’s interesting to consider that MATIC is their greatest public position. Many of these will be acquired in 2023. Polygon will launch zkEVM on his March 27th. Blockchain Cap, meanwhile, co-led Dragonfly and zkSync Series C funding rounds worth $200 million.
Dragonfly Capital has a total balance sheet of $90.4 million and also bets heavily on Lido Finance ($46 million), TON ($13.3 million), MATIC ($10.6 million) and FXS ($7 million).
DeFiance Capital has $85 million in crypto balances, mostly in stablecoins USDC, DAI, and USDT ($57 million). Surprisingly, DeFiance Capital has the largest investment in Lido Finance ($17M), followed by AAVE ($3.1M) and DODO ($3M).
At the time of writing, Lido Finance (LDO) is trading at $2.80, hitting a new all-time high just below the key resistance near $2.85.
![Crypto VC bets big on Lido Finance](https://bitcoinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/LDOUSD_2023-02-17_12-03-39.png)
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com