Latest Crypto Venture Fund Drums Up $110M for Web3 Startups

Early-stage venture fund to invest in startups building a decentralized future for the next billion users

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • “We’ll see the tokenization of everything” in the next 15 years, Cathay Innovation co-founder says
  • The fund seeks to commit investments ranging from $550,000 to $4.3 million

Crypto security platform Ledger has teamed up with venture capital firm Cathay Innovation to launch a $110 million early-stage fund focused on Web3, DeFi, NFTs and DAOs. 

The partnership, Ledger Cathay Capital, is backed by French public investment bank Bpifrance. The combined entity seeks to unlock resources, networks and potential partnerships to accelerate Web3 innovation, while maintaining security standards.

Led by Cathay Innovation co-founder Denis Barrier, as well as Ledger’s Pascal Gauthier and Michael Louzado, the fund plans to invest in seed to Series A funding rounds. The idea is to make 20 to 25 investments, all-in, with checks ranging from $550,000 to $4.3 million. 

Cathay Innovation’s Denis Barrier

The strategy keys in on backing protocols and native tokens, as well as emerging DeFi (decentralized finance) security, infrastructure and digital ownership technologies, which Barrier and Gauthier called a multi-decade investment opportunity.

The fund has not made any investments to date. 

“We’re at the beginning of a significant shift in technology as the third iteration of the web emerges, which is being built on blockchains with tokens that enable new use cases in the tokenization of the entire global economy,” Barrier and Gauthier told Blockworks in an email. “Cryptocurrencies are the first case to have scaled.” 

Cathay Innovation, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital, is a multi-stage fund with roughly $1.5 billion in assets. 

Founded in 2014, Paris-based Ledger is a digital asset management solution that serves retail and institutional clients in 200 countries. The company secures about 20% of digital assets around the world through its Ledger Enterprise Solutions for institutions. 

The differentiation from other venture funds comes from combining Ledger’s experts in Web3, blockchain and security with Cathay’s extensive corporate ecosystem, according to Barrier and Gauthier.

“These entrepreneurs and builders need a secured and open security platform in order to design and imagine a new generation of services with easy access,” they said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

morpho 2 graphic.png

Research

Utilizing a ‘DeFi Mullet’ approach, Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed loans integration with Morpho demonstrates a powerful blueprint for CEXs to monetize dormant assets by expanding adoption of wrapped products (cbBTC, USDC) while also supporting native and/or preferred DeFi ecosystems (Base) which can further lead to downstream growth in onchain liquidity and increased utilization of the related assets.

article-image

The platform also rolled out 13 tokenized funds for institutions on the Connect platform

article-image

The company’s expanded lineup introduces new ETF products, as more and more issuers get into crypto funds

article-image

President Donald Trump announced a 10% levy on almost all goods and additional tariffs on so-called “worst offending” countries

article-image

Solana may be in “recomposition” mode, as new protocols put usefulness ahead of mere virality

article-image

The stablecoin issuer will have to contend with bigger players and the interest rates environment

article-image

The president reportedly was still working on his tariff policy plans late Tuesday evening