In an announcement on July 8, Paradigm said the company’s fourth fund will focus on startups operating in AI, robotics, autonomous hardware, crypto and several other foundational technology sectors.
Founded in 2018 by Matt Huang, a former Sequoia Capital partner, and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm has long been considered one of the most influential investors in the crypto ecosystem. The firm launched a $2.5 billion fund in 2021 during the market’s bull cycle, before introducing an $850 million early-stage blockchain fund in 2024.
This time, Paradigm does not view AI as a replacement for crypto. The company’s leadership said:
“We will continue investing in crypto, in the reshaping of financial markets and blockchain infrastructure, while expanding into AI and robotics — sectors that are increasingly converging with blockchain.”
This is Paradigm’s fourth investment fund and reflects its strategy of seeking opportunities in technologies growing at an exponential pace rather than limiting itself to a single industry. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Paradigm had aimed to raise as much as $1.5 billion.
Paradigm’s portfolio also shows that this strategy had already been underway. In addition to crypto names such as Hyperliquid, Kalshi and the stablecoin blockchain Tempo, a joint project between Paradigm and Stripe, the firm has also invested in autonomous drone startup Zipline, space-defense company True Anomaly and Nous Research, one of the most prominent open-source AI research labs in recent months.
Paradigm has also directly developed several internal technology projects, including the Ethereum toolkit Foundry, the Reth client, the Centaur AI Agent and EVMbench, a blockchain security benchmarking suite built together with OpenAI.
The AI Agent wave is creating new demand for decentralized payment infrastructure, where AI agents can own wallets, store stablecoins and execute transactions with little to no human intervention.
Major companies such as Coinbase and Stripe have each developed payment tools specifically for AI agents, allowing AI models to send funds, receive payments or interact with blockchain protocols automatically.
This trend also explains why many crypto investment funds are expanding their scope at the same time. They are no longer focused only on new layer-1 networks or DeFi protocols, but are increasingly looking for startups at the intersection of AI, blockchain, robotics, energy and high-performance computing.
In conclusion, Paradigm calls this the era of “exponential growth curves” — where AI, crypto, space and deep tech are colliding and reinforcing one another.
Conclusion:
Paradigm’s new fund shows that leading crypto investors no longer see blockchain as an isolated sector. The next major growth cycle may form at the intersection of AI, crypto, robotics and payment infrastructure, especially as AI agents begin to require wallets, stablecoins and autonomous transaction systems.
