Weekly Newsletter, 11 April 2025

Tariffs don't impact blockchain networks

Tariffs don't impact blockchain networks. But blockchain investors still need to deal with volatility.

As protectionism rises and global trade faces extreme friction, investing in traditional industries means navigating political risk like never before. Blockchain Networks, by their very design, are not impacted by such tariffs, trade wars and top down interference. They are open, decentralized infrastructure networks that introduce unstoppable free trade on credibly neutral rails free from entrenched interests.

This doesn’t mean however that investors in blockchain infrastructure are not impacted by the sharp changes in market sentiment that are a result of the current turmoil. For publicly traded blockchain assets the opposite is true. They tend to move with 100% correlation and an elevated beta, often far exceeding 1. The reason is that they are effectively early, venture-stage investments with a 24/7 price feed and, up to now at least, have a largely retail-driven investor base. It should therefore come as no surprise that their prices are volatile and sentiment-driven, with little short-term differentiation.

So despite the fact that tariffs don’t impact blockchains, and indeed blockchain technology’s fundamentals are stronger than ever – not least because the US administration is actively embracing the technology – public stage investors still have to deal with extreme volatility. It is precisely that what makes investing in public crypto assets so challenging.

The picture for private stage blockchain investors is quite different however. By the time quality projects launch their public token networks, on average a little over 2 years from their private-seed round per our data, the starting valuations in the public markets tend to be at a high multiple to the private-phase cost base. Also per our data, the average multiple exceeds 10x. That provides quite the margin-of-safety against subsequent volatility. So, if you invest with a long-term setup that grants staying power, you’re in a good position to weather periods of market dislocation, until sentiment inevitably swings back.

In the meantime, like any other investor, we watch in amazement what is unfolding around us, with growing conviction that the next generation of economic rails are unlikely to be built in Washington, Beijing, or Brussels. They are being built on-chain.

Also this week

Relevant financial updates

Hidden Road*, a technology-driven company that provides prime brokerage, clearing, and financing services to institutions, has been acquired by Ripple for $1.25B
Babylon*, a protocol that offers security-sharing protocols that leverage Bitcoin's security to protect Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain networks, had its TGE and currently trades at a $995M FDV
CAP Labs*, a decentralized platform offering a stablecoin engine designed to provide yield from diverse sources, has raised $8M in a Seed funding round with investments from GSR Investments, Selini Capital, Presto Labs, Franklin Templeton Investments, Flow Traders and 25 others
Meanwhile*, a company that offers life insurance policies based in Bitcoin, has raised $40M in a Series A funding round with investments from Framework Ventures, Fulgur Ventures, Wences Casares and Xapo
Blackbird*, a blockchain-focused platform connecting restaurants with customers, enhancing guest recognition and service, has raised $50M in a Series B funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital and American Express Ventures.
Slingshot*, a company that aims to provide efficient and secure trading experiences for its uers, has been acquired by Magic Eden for an undisclosed amount
Codex*, a blockchain company developing a stablecoin-focused layer-2 that aims to facilitate zero-latency cross-border transaction, has raised $15.80M in a Seed funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly, Circle Ventures, Wintermute and Cumberland Labs
Plume*, a layer-1 blockchain network focused on tokenizing and trading real-world assets, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Strategic funding round with investments from Apollo Global Management
P2P.me, a decentralized platform for fully on-chain FIAT/USDC swaps, enabling users to transact without traditional intermediaries, has raised $2M in a Seed funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital.
MetaEra, a blockchain-focused media outlet that advocates for the expansion of the Web 3.0 sector, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre Series A funding round with investments from Fenbushi Capital, Amber Group, FOMO Ventures, Solowin Holdings and Klickl
SATS Terminal, a Bitcoin-focused financial platform offering tools and services for users to manage and transact in Bitcoin, has raised $1.70M in a Pre Seed funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, MH Ventures, 3Commas, Draper Dragon, Draper Associates and 14 others
DecentralGPT, a decentralized artificial intelligence platform that integrates blockchain technology to provide AI services, has raised $3M in a Series A funding round with investments from Aethir, Cherry Ventures, DePINX, BTR Capital and AGICrypto Capital
Octane Security*, who specializes in cybersecurity solutions, offering services to protect digital assets and information systems, has raised $6.75M in a Seed funding round with investments from Balaji Srinivasan, Circle Ventures, Archetype, Gemini Frontier Fund, Winklevoss Capital and 4 others
Gunzilla*, an independent AAA video game developer whose flagship project "Off The Grid" is a next-generation cyberpunk battle royale game, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Strategic funding round with investments from 1kx, following its TGE from last week
Towns, a group chat protocol and app for online communities to create their own virtual towns, has raised $10M in a Series B funding round with investments from Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark

*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 11/04

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