The Current State of Top Crypto Investment Firms' Portfolios: Most Have Become Shitcoins

Written by: Overnight Porridge, DeFi Dao

Over the past year, the vast majority of participants in the crypto ecosystem have suffered significant losses—even top-tier investment firms with abundant talent were no exception. It is reported that Multicoin Capital, known as the "Maotai of the crypto world," experienced a drawdown of as much as 90% over the past year.

In the month following the FTX collapse, it is particularly interesting to examine the portfolios of these top investment firms.

Next, we will first analyze the performance of investment portfolios from both first-tier and some second-tier crypto VCs over the past month, attempting to draw meaningful conclusions.

Note: The projects mentioned below are part of the portfolios of Multicoin Capital, Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Digital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, HashKey Capital, Animoca Brands, Paradigm, Tiger Global Management, DragonFly Capital, Binance Labs, Sequoia Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, Framework Ventures, 1confirmation, and Digital Currency Group (DCG). All listed projects have a circulating market cap exceeding $5 million. Projects are listed without ranking (data sourced from Cryptorank).

Top 5 Worst & Best Performing Projects from Leading Crypto VCs Over the Past Month

Multicoin Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Blockchain Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Coinbase Ventures

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Delphi Digital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Pantera Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Polychain Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

HashKey Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Animoca Brands

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Paradigm

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Tiger Global Management

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

DragonFly Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Binance Labs

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Sequoia Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Arrington XRP Capital

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Framework Ventures

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

1confirmation

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Digital Currency Group (DCG)

5 worst-performing projects:

5 best-performing projects:

Some Observations

1. Over the past month, amid BTC falling 2.4% and ETH dropping 4.0%, many layer-1 blockchain projects that were excessively hyped during the last bull cycle have been harshly punished by the market. Notable examples include Flow, Celo, Aurora, Aptos, Helium, Near, Filecoin, and Juno. In contrast, Cosmos Hub (ATOM) and the controversial Solana received relatively stronger support in the short term. On the other hand, despite ongoing narratives around application-specific chains, the poor short-term performance of dYdX and Osmosis suggests that such narratives offer limited resilience under adverse conditions. As macroeconomic headwinds may shift in the second half of 2023, further observation of L1 blockchains will be necessary.

2. The tokens of the vast majority of DeFi projects performed extremely poorly over the past month—even leading projects like Uniswap saw their UNI token drop 11.9%, far exceeding the declines of BTC and ETH. This likely reflects major challenges in attracting new users to DeFi. Looking ahead to the next potential DeFi bull market, solving issues around user experience and real-world use cases will be critical—relying solely on complex, Ponzi-like tokenomics will not suffice.

3. Among the portfolios of top crypto VCs, Lido stood out with relatively healthy performance, likely driven by the upcoming catalyst of Ethereum enabling staking withdrawals.

4. Over the past month, previously heavily promoted decentralized social projects performed very poorly. There is still no dominant leader in this space. Watching the development of Nostr and Farcaster going forward will be particularly interesting.

5. In the crypto gaming sector, projects with Ponzi-style token economies—represented by STEPN—performed disastrously over the past month. Similarly, tokens of GameFi guilds such as YGG and GuildFi suffered severe devaluation. In contrast, ParagonsDAO, which focuses on game quality first, delivered an independent positive performance. These trends suggest a shift in the direction of crypto gaming: superior game quality is more likely to attract both crypto-native and mainstream players.

6. In a bear market context, the tokens of most crypto projects devolve into shitcoins, ruthlessly crushed by BTC and ETH—even projects backed by top-tier investment firms are not immune. However, as we enter the next cycle, new and unproven crypto projects will inevitably attract renewed attention. Monitoring these shifts will remain highly compelling.

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