Tony

Principal at @V3V_Ventures.
If not now, wen?

[Tony @AntNomad]

Solid growth rate and a useful product — these things are what matter, 100% agree

[Paul Graham @paulg]

How to Earn a Billion Dollars: https://t.co/WeWBUkKym6

[Tony @AntNomad]

@E_Anderson1 and TradFi is, more than ever, open to expand their businesses with stablecoins, tokenization and stuff like distributed ledger

[Tony @AntNomad]

Genuinely excited after the official investor dinner co-hosted by @v3v_ventures and @DFG__Official as a part of @proofoftalk.

I'd like to thank every VC, founder, FO representative, and angel investor who attended and took the time to connect with us.

It was a pleasure hosting you all👏

[V3V Ventures @v3v_ventures]

Last week, @v3v_ventures was in Paris for @proofoftalk — and it was one of the most energizing events we've been part of this year

Together with @DFG__Official, we co-hosted an investor dinner on the sidelines of the conference. The kind of dinner where you lose track of time because the conversations are actually good. No panels, no decks — just VCs and founders being direct about what they're building and where things are heading

A few things stood out: founder quality at PoT has genuinely jumped. And despite everything you read about market sentiment, early-stage appetite is real — the right builders are still getting backed

Big thank you to @MoonrockCapital, @1kxnetwork, @greenfield_cap, @AccVentures and everyone else who joined us at the table. You made it worth the trip

See you at the next one 🫡

[Tony @AntNomad]

Excited to attend such an exceptional conference with both crypto and TradFi presence! @proofoftalk

Serving as a judge at the Demo Day https://t.co/d5llGmXwHk and joining the Official Investor Dinner by @DFG__Official and @v3v_ventures https://t.co/PQRGZHhvRh.

See you there!

[Tony @AntNomad]

and then you realized you need to be at this dinner

[Proof of Talk @proofoftalk]

The @DFG__Official × @v3v_ventures Investor Dinner is happening at Proof of Talk. And you want to be at this table.

If you’re a founder:

You’re sitting across from capital that has already written the check on @ethereum, @solana, @circle, @NEARProtocol and @Ledger and a fund that gets on a call with you about your architecture the week after they invest.

If you’re an investor:

This dinner is the moment where you skip the guess talking stage. The founders in this room were selected.

The allocators around this table include some of the most active names deploying into digital assets right now.

Expect faces from funds like @multicoin, @Arrington_Cap, @Pantera, @dragonfly_xyz, @animocabrands, @TheSpartanGroup, @ForesightVen and LPs quietly watching what the next cycle surfaces.

The guest list is curated jointly by DFG, V3V, and the Proof of Talk team.

This isn’t open registration. Every seat is reviewed. Which means everyone around that table is worth talking to.

One long table. One of Paris’s most iconic restaurants. 150 seats.

If you’re building something real or deploying serious capital, this is the dinner you don’t miss.

Secure your seat: https://t.co/q3BI14qsUI

[Tony @AntNomad]

@ckyzhu so is it better to work on weekends and have Wed as a day-off 🤔?

[Tony @AntNomad]

@Ferdi_XV @FTDA_US @adam3us @Blockstream @proofoftalk @XVentures_Fund looking forward to it!

[Tony @AntNomad]

@cyberfund awesome thing 👏

[Tony @AntNomad]

@0xJonnyDee @EthPrague Absolutely!

[Tony @AntNomad]

Thank you @EthPrague for the opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues, and make a few new connections as well.
Despite the difficulties, the organizers optimized everything with a true "startup spirit" and successfully delivered the event 👏

[V3V Ventures @v3v_ventures]

This year, @EthPrague was lean in the best way.

Municipal House was an amazing venue — historic, but practical — which meant fewer distractions and more builder-focused convos.

Kudos to the organizers for making it happen despite the challenges.

The @VitalikButerin × @jbaylina fireside on upgraded rollups was a highlight.

And as always, familiar faces made it worth showing up. See you soon at @proofoftalk in Paris!

[Tony @AntNomad]

Looking forward to meeting VC colleagues and dynamic founders in Paris this June. If you will be there, please dm.

[V3V Ventures @v3v_ventures]

We are pleased to announce that V3V Ventures will be cohosting the @proofoftalk Investor Dinner alongside @DFG__Official.

The allocators around this table include some of the most active funds deploying into digital assets such as @a16zcrypto, @multicoin, @Arrington_Cap, @PanteraCapital, @dragonfly_xyz, @TheSpartanGroup, @ForesightVen and more.

One of Paris’ most iconic restaurants. 150 seats.

If you’re a visionary founder or deploying serious capital, you don’t want to miss this dinner.

Use our code V3VVENTURES for 20% off your Proof of Talk pass.

See you at The Louvre → https://t.co/VlKH9olsBJ

[V3V Ventures @v3v_ventures]

The first V3V <> Basejump Hacker House in Barcelona is already in full swing, and the first cohort of 7 teams starts building tomorrow.

If you’re a local founder in BCN with an interesting startup, DM us — you might make it into the second cohort and qualify for investment!

[Tony @AntNomad]

meaning that early stage founders need to be much more result-driven than ever.
keep grinding and keep researching to eventually find a solid pmf

[Dara @dara_venture]

The megafunds - still active, still raising.

@a16zcrypto, $7.6B+ in crypto AUM. Raising up to $2B for Fund V, expected to close H1 2026. AUM shrunk 40% through the downturn, but they distributed at the highs (5.4x DPI on Fund I).

@paradigm, $8.5B+ raised historically, $2.5B flagship. Now raising up to $1.5B, but widening the mandate into AI and robotics.

@PanteraCapital, $5.2B AUM at peak. Fund V launched April 2025 targeting $1.25B. Got capital back to LPs off five portfolio IPOs, including Circle and BitGo.

@HaunVentures, raising $1B across two new funds ($500m early + $500m late). AUM up 30%+ in 2025 on the back of the BVNK → Mastercard acquisition. The only one of the big six that actually grew during the rout.

@polychain, double-digit AUM growth through 2024. Still deploying.

@multicoin, AUM halved to ~$2.7B. Solana concentration cuts both ways.

@dragonfly_xyz, closed $650M Fund IV in Feb 2026. Oversubscribed from a $500M target in the middle of a bear market. Their back-to-back downturn vintages (2018, 2022) have historically been their best.

@ElectricCapital,AUM up 50%+ through 2024. Quiet, deploying.

Seed financing fell 18% year-on-year. Series B rounds rose 90%.

Where capital's going - stablecoin infrastructure, RWA tokenisation, institutional custody, treasury vehicles.

Where it's not: NFTs, GameFi, speculative L1s, consumer apps.

Geography,

US still leads — over half of all tracked funds. But Singapore, the UK and the UAE are the fastest-growing hubs.

MGX's $2B cheque into @binance out of Abu Dhabi told the market what time it is.

This is where we sit.

@HashgraphVC — $100m fund out of Abu Dhabi, global early-stage mandate.

In a cycle where the megafunds are stacked at the late stage chasing $500m+ tickets into pre-IPO infrastructure, the gap at seed and Series A is only getting wider. We're writing into it.

The megafunds are stronger than ever. They're bigger, maybe slower, and more selective.

The best vintages in this industry have always been raised in exactly this kind of market.

[Tony @AntNomad]

It's not a playbook, but Tom highlighted key points, that many projects don't pay attention to.
I'd also add that the reasons underpinning existing valuation are highly useful — they help assess how founders perceive a project's value and whether that assessment is justified

[Tom Dunleavy @dunleavy89]

After fielding a few hundred messages from teams, I wanted to give a few brief notes on best practices for engaging with VCs. These are my personal thoughts but I imagine most VCs would echo these. Mostly unfiltered thoughts below.

For Projects Pitching VCs:
1) Sell me your product in 1-2 lines MAX to start.
2) Following, tell me what your product actually does, why it's important, and ideally, why now is the right time for it. 1 paragraph.
3) Give me a handful of bullets on why I should REALLY be excited about you. Product features. User traction. Partnerships. Key Investors.
4) Always include your terms. Based on if you are raising a $3m or $30m round you will immediately exclude a certain set of investors.
5) ALWAYS include a deck or investment memo. If the above hooked me I am going to ask for it anyway.
6) Ideally, all of the above is in a TG blurb I can forward to my team or other interested investors.
7) Moving on to the deck. The deck should include at minimum: product overview, tech overview, business model, traction and GTM plan, team bios, competitive analysis, deal terms and investors, tokenomics (if applicable), runway and financial metrics.
8) Ideally, your deck is 15-20 pages. The rest of the details are for the data room.
9) Prob unpopular but the visual quality and attention to detail in your deck matter alot. I see 20+ decks a week. If it's obvious you made your deck in Claude vs have some clean awesome new presentation or visual I've never seen before, it is going to stand out regardless of the product. Not the end-all, be-all, but not worth ignoring.
10) DONT be pushy for a call immediately. Don't follow up after 24 hours. If a VC is interested they WILL follow up. If its been a week that's fair game to give a friendly nudge. Most VCs have dozens of deals in multiple stages of review.
11) Warm intros >>> everyone. Find someone who I know who can vouch for you.
12) Know the background and firm you are speaking with and what they are interested in. If they have never invested in your vertical and you saw they bashing it on a podcast prob not going to be the ideal investor for you.
13) I would probably love to meet you in person but only if we have already established interest on both sides. More likely we meet in person if there is a warm intro. More likely if we are both attending the same event already.
14) TG is generally the best place to get in touch with most investors. Emails are slow for discussion. Whats app/signal are mostly for your phone. Linkedin and X DMs are 99% spam and often unchecked.
15) Focus most of your initial efforts on your lead. 90% of investors won't commit until there is a lead or may be interested and back out if they dont like the lead or teams.
16) Unpopular one again but angel investor clout has basically lost all relevance unless the angel has some leverage they can provide your project. List less angels, less I think you are degen play screaming for CT clout.

[V3V Ventures @v3v_ventures]

There’s no point calling the market dead while the best rooms at @EthCC are still full of builders, funds, and real opportunities.

Great week for V3V Ventures in Cannes 🇫🇷 — our team had a real blast, and a few strong collabs are already in motion. More details soon!

[Tony @AntNomad]

EthCC Wrap-Up 🇫🇷

1. Developers are still cooking, and investors are still deploying. Despite less-than-ideal market conditions, both sides remain active; however projects need solid, realistic metrics to close rounds efficiently.

2. AI integration across workflows is becoming inevitable. From coding copilots to automating event registrations on Luma — we are shifting towards faster/better/stronger ops.

3. TradFi capital is entering crypto (obviously). Not because it's more promising, but it can perform better there. Large institutions tend to rely on familiar security standards, performance metrics and revenue streams, not just "x3 times higher-APY".

Nowadays, a number of players are navigating challenges or stepping back from the crypto space. That makes @EthCC especially valuable — people gather together, "touch the grass" and focus on long-term thinking.

Let's go grinding.

[Uniblock @Uniblock]

Uniblock has raised $5.2M ($7.5M to date) to unify APIs across 300+ blockchains and 55+ data providers into a single integration.

Backed by SBI, @Alchemy, @moonpay, @NGC_Ventures, @blockchainFF, @hustlefund, @StellarOrg , @Auros_global, @ContributionCap, @CoinSwitch, @wavedigital_, @LucidDrakes, @v3v_ventures, & @AAF_Management.

[Uniblock @Uniblock]

The world is changing rapidly and agents need to be able to operate seamlessly on any chain.

With 300+ Blockchains, 55+ Data Partners, and 3000+ APIs, Uniblock has every blockchain API in one interface.

Uniblock is proud to be among the first 15+ founding contributors to OWS alongside @moonpay

[Tony @AntNomad]

@0xstajus @MoneyMotionXYZ Nice experience!

[Uniblock @Uniblock]

https://t.co/xDR1Q9UBP3 just got a full refresh.

New design, new structure, clearer product surface. The site now reflects what the platform actually does and how teams use it.

Same API. Same infrastructure. Better front door.

https://t.co/xDR1Q9UBP3