Blockchain Capital is one of the oldest dedicated crypto venture firms in the world. Bart Stephens and Brad Stephens founded the firm in San Francisco in 2013, making it a pioneer in institutional crypto investing long before the asset class attracted mainstream attention. The firm backs projects across the full stack – from Layer 1 networks and infrastructure to consumer applications and compliance tooling – with a stated preference for seed-stage companies. Blockchain Capital has raised six funds to date, with Fund V closing at $300 million in 2021 and Fund VI closing at $580 million in 2022, bringing total assets under management to over $1 billion.
The firm is also known for a historic first: in 2017 it launched the BCAP token, the first tokenized venture fund, raising approximately $10 million via a security token offering. That experiment signaled early conviction in on-chain financial primitives and remains a reference point for the tokenized-fund movement that gained momentum in 2024–2025. Blockchain Capital operates from San Francisco and focuses primarily on North American and global English-language crypto markets, though its portfolio spans teams across Europe, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
Notable investments
- Coinbase – Blockchain Capital backed Coinbase at the seed stage in 2013. Coinbase's April 2021 Nasdaq direct listing at a peak valuation above $85 billion represents the firm's single largest documented return.
- Kraken – early investment in one of the longest-standing crypto exchanges, which filed for a US IPO in 2025.
- Circle – issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap.
- Anchorage Digital – first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States (OCC charter, 2021).
- OpenSea – NFT marketplace that peaked at a $13.3 billion valuation in January 2022.
- Alchemy – leading Web3 developer platform, valued at $10.2 billion as of its 2022 raise.
- Paxos – regulated blockchain infrastructure firm and issuer of USDP and PYUSD.
- TRM Labs – blockchain intelligence and compliance firm; Blockchain Capital participated in TRM's $70 million round closed in February 2026, the firm's most recent disclosed deal.
- Ripple – early investor in the XRP ecosystem company, which reached a partial legal settlement with the SEC in 2023.
- BitGo – institutional digital asset custody, trust, and security platform.
Team
Bart Stephens (Co-founder and Managing Partner) and Brad Stephens (Co-founder and Managing Partner) have run the firm since inception. Both came from traditional finance and technology investing before pivoting to crypto full-time. Spencer Bogart, a General Partner who joined from Needham and Company where he covered digital assets as an equity analyst, leads much of the firm's market research and deal sourcing. The team has grown to roughly 20 investment and operations professionals across its San Francisco headquarters. Public information about individual partner fund allocations and carry structures is limited, as Blockchain Capital is not publicly listed. More detail on partners is available via Crunchbase.
Recent activity
Over the 18 months through early 2026, Blockchain Capital leaned into compliance infrastructure and institutional-grade tooling rather than consumer applications. The TRM Labs investment in February 2026 fits a pattern: as global AML and sanctions-screening requirements tightened for crypto businesses, firms with government contracts and forensic capabilities attracted fresh capital. The firm also participated in rounds for several Layer 1 and rollup teams that are not yet publicly disclosed. Blockchain Capital's published research from 2025 highlighted DeFi re-architecture, Bitcoin Layer 2 growth, and institutional tokenization as core thesis areas for Fund VI deployment.
The firm's reported retail ROI of approximately 3.97x places it in a strong but not exceptional bracket relative to peers who held earlier Coinbase or Solana positions at lower basis. OpenSea's valuation decline from its 2022 peak is a documented headwind for paper returns. On balance, Blockchain Capital's track record – anchored by the Coinbase IPO, with a diversified bench of infrastructure bets now entering revenue scale – positions it among the most credible long-term operators in crypto venture. For regulatory filings, the firm's Form ADV is accessible via the SEC EDGAR database.
