Benzinga | Nov 15, 2021 03:13PM EST

Coinbase Co-founder Conceives Biggest Crypto VC Fund: FT

* Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang raised $2.5 billion in November for Paradigm One, their first venture capital fund, Financial Times reports.

* Investors maneuvered to commit money to the fund, allowing them to raise twice the amount they initially targeted.

* "It is probably small relative to where we're going in 10 years," Ehrsam said.

* Earlier this year, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz also raised twice as much as it had hoped for a new cryptocurrency fund, bringing in $2.2 billion, which at the time it said was the "largest crypto fund ever raised."

* Both firms have staked their fortunes on an expanding ecosystem of applications based on digital ledger Ethereum that allows programmers to write contracts automatically executing functions.

* The programs run on tokens, digital assets granted to users over time, often giving them a say in governance.

* Paradigm has accumulated some of the most significant token holdings in the sector by placing early bets on development teams, giving it rights to future distributions.

* The fund's assets have reached $10 billion. Paradigm's founders said the world of token-based apps, sometimes referred to as web3, still had more room to grow.

* In areas like gaming and music, developers are experimenting with new ways to distribute value to consumers using tokens.

* Price Action: COIN shares traded higher by 0.87% at $345.95 on the last check Monday.