Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Editor: TB, ChainCatcher
Pantera is building a "multi-coin version of the MicroStrategy investment matrix."
As one of the earliest bettors in the crypto world, Pantera Capital has successfully predicted the dawn of Bitcoin, the summer of DeFi, and has also stumbled into the deep pit of FTX.
Twelve years later, it remains active and even more aggressive in the new wave of coin stocks. Behind many publicly listed companies that finance and buy coins, there is a shadow of Pantera.
What kind of VC is this veteran of the crypto narrative, an immortal player on the cyclical battlefield? What new layout is it planning now?
The Betting Story of Pantera
Pantera Capital began betting on the crypto industry in 2013, making it one of the earliest crypto venture capital firms. It launched the first investment fund in the U.S. focused on Bitcoin and purchased about 2% of the world's Bitcoin between 2013 and 2015, ultimately achieving over 1000 times return.
However, what truly supports Pantera in navigating cycles is not a single successful bet, but its continuous ability to respond to changes in market structure.
When the ICO boom arose, Pantera was the first to launch an early token fund; after the arrival of DeFi Summer, it established the Pantera Blockchain Fund, providing comprehensive investment opportunities in the cryptocurrency and blockchain markets. From fund types to strategic allocations, Pantera's adaptive thinking closely follows the market.
Currently, Pantera manages five main funds: a venture fund, a Bitcoin fund, an early token fund, a liquid token fund, and the Pantera Fund. According to data from their official website, they manage assets exceeding $4.2 billion and have achieved cumulative returns of approximately $547 million.
Pantera's investment pace remains tight. According to RootData, it has invested in 214 projects, ranking 13th among all investment institutions, with 18 projects in the past year alone. The investment layout mainly focuses on four major sectors: infrastructure, DeFi, CeFi, and blockchain gaming.
In its portfolio, there are star projects such as Circle, Ripple, Polkadot, Coinbase, and StarkNet. However, not every investment has yielded positive results; as of now, 33 projects have announced their termination, including FTX and Lithium Finance.
In 2024, Pantera made a high-profile bet on TON, believing in its potential with a network of 900 million active users. This judgment led to its largest investment in the history of the fund. According to on-chain analyst AI Yi, Pantera's investment in TON may exceed $250 million. However, the price of TON has since retraced over 60% from its peak in 2024.
Even so, Pantera's investment trajectory clearly demonstrates the self-iteration and phased risks of a veteran crypto VC.
New Battlefield: The Rise of Coin Stocks and Pantera's Strategic Shift
At the beginning of 2025, the primary market cooled down, and liquidity and exit paths became new topics for crypto VCs. However, against this backdrop, the "coin stock wave" quietly emerged.
This time, Pantera Capital once again sensed the shift in the battlefield. Within a few months, it evaluated over 50 publicly listed companies with a core strategy of "financing + buying coins" and began to participate deeply.
To capture this new opportunity, Pantera specifically launched the "DAT Fund." Currently, several limited partners of Pantera have committed funding, expecting to invest over $100 million across multiple DAT projects.
Now, in various "micro-strategies" involving different coins, its investments and layouts can be seen. Here are some of the digital asset treasury (DAT) companies invested by Pantera:
Notably, several companies in the table have seen their stock prices increase over a hundredfold within just a month. Pantera partner Cosmo Jiang describes this type of investment as a structure where "you win on the upside and lose little on the downside."
[Note: Pantera typically enters DAT companies before they are publicly traded or when they are still priced close to their token net asset value (1.0x NAV), avoiding the high premiums of the public market.]
Regardless, Pantera Capital has secured a key position in this wave of coin stocks. As crypto KOL AB Kuai.Dong puts it: "Life or death, Pantera."
Dan Morehead, the "Macro Player" Turns to Crypto
To understand Pantera Capital's style, one cannot overlook its founder, Dan Morehead.
Dan Morehead's background is extremely "traditional": a graduate of Princeton University's engineering department, he later entered Wall Street, honing his trading skills at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and other institutions, ultimately becoming the CFO and macro strategy head of hedge fund giant Tiger Management. At that time, he managed assets in the billion-dollar range, adeptly navigating global currencies and interest rates.
In 2003, he founded Pantera Capital, initially as an ordinary investment company. Until 2013, he had a deep four-hour discussion with two friends. That conversation ignited his interest in Bitcoin. From then on, Pantera transformed into a venture capital firm in the crypto space.
At that time, the price of Bitcoin was comparable to that of Tesla, and Morehead made a bold decision: to sell all Tesla stocks and fully bet on Bitcoin. This also marked Pantera Capital's first success—the Bitcoin investment fund.
Dan Morehead has stated that the key to investing lies in identifying opportunities where potential returns far exceed risks. Risks are always present, but what truly matters is finding targets that can deliver explosive returns.
He emphasizes: "To achieve excess returns, you cannot follow the mainstream; you cannot invest in projects that every Wall Street firm has twenty analysts watching. This is also why we repeatedly stress in our investor letters to 'make alternative investments more alternative.'"
Today, although Morehead rarely appears in the public eye, Pantera Capital still retains the profound imprint he left behind: bold, forward-looking, and closely aligned with market structures.
Twelve years, multiple narratives, and hundreds of projects, Pantera Capital seeks signals in chaos and reshapes paths amid structural changes.
In this endless race of crypto, Pantera continues to bet.
Recommended Reading:
SharpLink's Operation: Unveiling the Players Behind the Coin Stock Craze A.G.P.
Entering the Coin Stock Battlefield, Robinhood Aims to Be the Nasdaq of the Crypto World
U.S. Listed Companies Cluster to "Buy Coins," What is the Effect of the Second Growth Curve?
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