New VC Fund To Focus On Crypto Infrastructure Builders

Canonical Crypto’s $20 million fund backed by individuals at a16z, Coinbase Ventures

article-image

Canonical Crypto founder Anand Iyer | Source: Canonical Crypto

share

key takeaways

  • Venture capital firm seeks to be the “Gucci” of early-stage crypto infrastructure investing, Canonical Crypto founder says
  • Fund intends to make 40 to 50 investments to support developers building in Web3

A newly launched venture fund backed by prominent crypto and tech investors is aiming to support developers making the transition from Web2 to Web3.

Canonical Crypto — led by longtime Silicon Valley operator Anand Iyer — said Thursday it raised $20 million in an oversubscribed round for its inaugural fund.

Backers include Coinbase Ventures’ Shan Aggarwal and a16z’s Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, as well as Haseeb Qureshi from Dragonfly Capital and Amy Wu of FTX Ventures. 

Iyer, who most recently led crypto investments at Pear VC, said the fund will focus exclusively on pre-seed and seed-stage companies building better infrastructure to support Web3 decentralized applications.

He noted his years of experience creating developer go-to-market strategies, which he said remains “an open space.”

“It feels like we are in the ‘airport’ phase of crypto infrastructure; we have lots of airplanes, not enough airports,” Iyer told Blockworks. “We are paying particularly close attention to tooling and infrastructure to support developers building in Web3.”

Canonical Crypto intends to make 40 to 50 investments in this fund, ranging in size from $250,000 to $500,000. It has so far backed NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace Formfunction; Web3 communication infrastructure provider Notifi; data infrastructure company Vybe Network; and Thirdweb, which offers low-code solutions for building Web3 dapps.  

“The check size and commitment seem to be a really good fit,” Iyer said. “I foresee raising future funds around the same size as our inaugural fund so that we can continue to be the ‘Gucci’ of early stage crypto infrastructure investing.”

Despite a downturn in crypto markets in recent months, JPMorgan analysts wrote in a report last week that year-to-date crypto venture capital funding stood at $25 billion. Even after the collapse of Terra’s stablecoin UST last month, which rattled crypto markets, “there is little evidence of VC funding drying up,” they added.

Also last week, a16z revealed its $4.5 billion raise for the largest-ever crypto venture fund, with $1.5 billion of that earmarked for seed investments in Web3 startups.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

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

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

As Satoshi-era wallets saw over $8 billion worth of BTC on the move, Congress is gearing up for “Crypto Week”

article-image

Bitcoin’s runaway success was partly driven by Slashdot

article-image

Blockworks Research data shows that VC spending is back on the rise after a slow May

article-image

After rejecting a bid from the AI cloud-computing startup last year, Core Scientific agreed to be acquired in a deal expected to close by Q4 2025

article-image

Sponsored

Plume’s collaboration with TRON will unlock cross-chain RWA yield for one of the world’s largest blockchain ecosystems

article-image

Who needs gold when you have taxes?