Coinbase Ventures, Animoca, a16z and Tether are the four most active crypto VCs in 2026. Animoca is a fun one: - Did 80 NFT deals in their history, ZERO this year - About 230 of its ~600 portfolio companies are gaming, and gaming went from 141 rounds in 2024 to FIVE in 2026. Animoca is doing small checks now while pivoting to stablecoins and AI before a Nasdaq listing (via reverse merger). ------ Coinbase Ventures did 26 deals this year, almost all early stage and almost all pre-token. They lead almost none. Seems that Coinbase deals buys them relationship with teams that will build on Base, use Coinbase custody and list on their CEXs. Maybe not a conviction VC to copy trade. ---- a16z closed a $2.2B crypto fund in May, they invest in institutional infra instead of new L1s: Digital Asset, Talos, Stitch, Arc. Although a16z did less deals, they deployed more USD than the other three combined. Median round they join is $25M. Coinbase is $10.2M. Two most interesting deals they did are: 1. Morpho: $175M in June together with Paradigm and Ribbit. They bought MORPHO at average monthly market price. So no VC discount. 2. Arc: Circle sold 740M ARC for $222M at $0.30 a16z took $75M of it. BlackRock, Apollo, ARK, ICE and Standard Chartered took the rest. Two pure token plays! ----- Tether did 13 deals and went alone in 6! With ~$190B in reserves earning yield, it doesn't need VC returns but it needs USDT distribution. So they invest in companies and countries that already have some USDT distribution. e.g., - @MercadoBitcoin , Brazil, $20M - @bello_app , Argentina, $14M - @UseLemfi , Africa and Asia remittances ---- Interestingly, these four "VCs" barely overlap. Across all their 2026 portfolios there are only two shared deals: Digital Asset and Zcash Open Development Lab. Both by Coinbase + a16z.(Ignas | DeFi)