Thor Hartvigsen, a data-driven DeFi researcher based in Copenhagen has used on-chain analysis tools Watchers, Nansen, DeBank and Arkham to examine the altcoin holdings of the 20 largest crypto funds. Together, these have a total of more than 1,200 wallets.
In a thread on Twitter, Hartvigsen gift eight largest VCs, largest crypto holdings and new investments. As analysts point out, holding altcoins can generally be considered an indication of a strong investment. However, there is no guarantee that VCs are “smart money,” because “they often act recklessly.”
“So use this info as you wish – to countertrade VC or identify strong narrative/trading possibilities from funds that are still alive today,” Hartvigsen stressed, identifying Jump Trading as the largest crypto VC.
VC is looking for a wallet 🐳
The top 20 crypto funds have 1200+ wallets combined. I have been closely monitoring throughout Jan / Feb 🔎
I present 8 of the biggest VCs, biggest holdings and most recent investments👇 pic.twitter.com/SlCWGeOcla
— Thor⚡️Hartvigsen (@ThorHartvigsen) February 16, 2023
The company has a total balance of $3.8 billion, with the largest altcoin in its portfolio so far being Ethereum with $3.25 billion. Behind them 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 this is only an EVM wallet and that there are definitely several wallets that include SOL and wETH in 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).
The positions were 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 million in MATIC.
Wintermute made its biggest sale in history last February, when it sold VC Ape Coin (APE) for about $4 million.
Crypto VCs Bet Big On LDO, ETH, MATIC
Paradigm follows in third place with a total balance of $382 million. Paradigm’s largest owner is Lido Finance (LDO) with $195 million, followed by $166.5 million in ETH and $22.47 million in MKR. Other investments include Optimisme, Synthetix, DYDX, Osmosis, Uniswap, Starkware and others.
“However, Paradigm is one of the largest investors in Lido Finance. Currently, 79m of LDO 100m tokens are unlocked (fully unlocked on May 1, 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 the BNB chain via Wormwhole. a16z controls over 4% of all UNI tokens ($257 million in UNI). The next largest holdings of a16z are $15.5 million USDC/ETH LP and $13.7 million USDCOMP.
Behind is the Amber Group with $245 million, which is also heavily dependent on Ethereum ($119 million in ETH). After that $74 million in USDC/USDT, $21.5 million in FET and $8.3 million in DYDX.
Notably, according to analysts, of all liquid staking providers, Amber Group is most confident with SWISE ($2.2 million). Also worth noting, all $21.5 million in FET (FetchAI) was bought in the last three days.
VC Blockchain Capital has 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) is the largest holding. Hartvigsen said:
It is interesting to see that MATIC is the largest public position. Many of these were even purchased in 2023. Polygon launched zkEVM on March 27. Meanwhile, Blockchain Cap also led zkSync’s series C funding round with Dragonfly worth $200m.
Dragonfly Capital has a total balance sheet of $90.4 million in crypto and also a big bet on Lido Finance ($46 million), followed by TON ($13.3 million), MATIC ($10.6 million) and FXS ($7 million) ).
DeFiance Capital has the same balance of $85 million in crypto, with most of it parked in stablecoins USDC, DAI and USDT ($57 million). Interestingly, DeFiance Capital also has the 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 the key resistance near $2.85 before breaking to a new all-time high.
Option images from iStock, Charts from TradingView.com