How many crypto funds are there? Industry size and growth
How many crypto funds are there?
The quick answer is over 800. But the number has changed a lot since we started counting in 2017, and the breakdown tells a more interesting story than the headline.
That 800+ number comes from our database, which we’ve been building for almost a decade. It includes every crypto-focused investment fund we’ve been able to identify and verify: hedge funds, venture capital funds, index products, and a handful of fund-of-funds and private equity vehicles.
But “800+” flattens a lot of nuance. So let’s break it down.
The breakdown by fund type
Venture capital funds have actually overtaken hedge funds as the more common type. That shift happened around 2020-2021 as traditional VC firms started launching dedicated blockchain vehicles and the ICO-era hybrid hedge funds either died or got reclassified. But crypto hedge funds still manage a larger share of total assets because many of the biggest funds by AUM (Pantera, Galaxy, Brevan Howard Digital) run liquid trading strategies.
A note on counting: the line between “crypto hedge fund” and “crypto VC fund” is blurry. Multicoin Capital trades liquid tokens and invests in private companies. Pantera runs both hedge fund and venture fund vehicles. We classify by primary strategy, but about 15-20% of funds in our database could reasonably fit in either category.
How big are crypto funds?
Most of them are small. Really small by traditional hedge fund standards.
Nearly 40% of crypto funds manage less than $10 million. Only about 4% exceed $1 billion, and those are names like Pantera, a16z, Paradigm, Galaxy, and DCG’s various vehicles. The average fund size is about $132 million, but the median is much lower because a few huge funds pull the average up.
What this means practically: the crypto fund industry is still very early by institutional standards. All crypto funds combined account for maybe 1% of total hedge fund assets globally. It’s a niche inside a niche.
Where are they based?
More than half are in North America, with the U.S. and UK together accounting for over 60% of fund managers by location. But where the team sits and where the fund is domiciled are usually different. Most crypto hedge funds are legally set up in the Cayman Islands regardless of where the managers live.
America
Pacific
& Other
The biggest shift in the last two years is the growth of funds in Singapore, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. Singapore has become the go-to for Asia-based crypto fund managers. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are attracting funds with favorable regulation and no income tax. We have detailed breakdowns in our articles on U.S.-based crypto funds, European funds, Singapore and Southeast Asia, and funds in the UAE.
Why the exact number is hard to pin down
We get asked for a precise count all the time, and we always have to caveat it. Here’s why:
Funds launch and die quietly. A small crypto hedge fund can shut down with a single email to its handful of LPs. There’s no public announcement. We often don’t learn about closures until months later when the fund stops responding to our data requests.
Some funds are invite-only and don’t want to be found. We know they exist because we hear about them from other industry participants, but they don’t show up in any directory and don’t respond to outreach. Our 800+ count is what we can verify, not what exists.
The definition keeps shifting. Is a Bitcoin ETF a “crypto fund”? What about a traditional macro fund that holds some Bitcoin futures? We count dedicated crypto investment vehicles, not traditional funds with incidental crypto exposure. But others count differently, which is why you’ll see numbers ranging from 400 to 900+ depending on the source.
We count funds that are primarily focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain investments, including hedge funds, VC funds, index funds, and fund-of-funds. We don’t count traditional funds that hold some Bitcoin, crypto ETFs, or token projects with treasury functions. Our database is updated continuously as we identify new funds and remove inactive ones.
See every fund in our database
The Crypto Fund List covers all 800+ funds in Excel format. The Performance Database adds monthly returns and risk metrics for 300+. Or start with a free sample.
Get the Fund List ($387) → Free sample (50 funds)Related questions people ask
How many crypto hedge funds are there specifically?
Over 400 active ones, based on our database. About 300 of those report monthly performance data to us.
How many crypto funds have shut down?
We’ve tracked several hundred closures over the years. The worst period was late 2022 through 2023, following the FTX collapse. Some closed because of direct FTX exposure. More closed because the bear market made fundraising impossible and their existing AUM dropped below the threshold where running a fund made economic sense.
What’s the total AUM of all crypto funds?
Hard to say with precision. Our most recent estimate is that dedicated crypto hedge funds manage between $10 billion and $15 billion in aggregate. When you add in VC funds (committed capital, mostly undeployed), the total crypto fund industry is probably somewhere in the $50-80 billion range. Some sources cite higher numbers, but those often include crypto ETFs or traditional hedge fund allocations to crypto, which we don’t count.
Where can I see the full list?
Our Crypto Fund List is an Excel download with all 800+ funds. Or browse a curated list of crypto hedge funds and top crypto VC funds on the blog. You can also download a free sample of 50 funds.