CMT Digital now has a $136 million investment vehicle, leveraging its trading heritage to identify and scale promising infrastructure and DeFi protocols.
Summary
- CMT Digital has closed its fourth fund at $136 million to support crypto startups in infrastructure and DeFi.
- The increase comes amid a major downturn in crypto venture funding, which fell 59% in the second quarter of 2025.
In one press release on November 5, Chicago-based crypto venture firm CMT Digital announced the final closing of its fourth investment vehicle, Fund IV, securing a total of $136 million.
The company, an offshoot of CMT Group, said the capital will be spent on early-stage startups building foundational infrastructure and decentralized financial protocols. Partner Sam Hallene noted that the fund attracted a mix of family offices and institutional limited partners, confirming continued, albeit more discerning, investor interest in digital asset companies.
“As the world continues to move, we believe the most transformative ideas are still ahead. With fresh capital, trusted partners and a proven platform, we are ready to help build the next generation of visionaries,” said Hallene.
Investing during winters and bull markets
CMT Group’s new fund expands a strategy that has been honed for nearly a decade, with the VC first committing capital to the digital asset space in 2016. The company has since gone through several boom and bust periods and built a portfolio of more than 200 investments.
According to the press release, the company’s selection process is based on the parent company’s 25-year history as a quantitative trading company, using internal research and market expertise to identify infrastructure that the team believes can survive the short-term hype.
CMT Group’s first fund focused on establishing access and backed foundational on-ramps like Coinbase and BitGo. Fund II shifted to building core infrastructure across the chain, investing in the data and financial rails that power the ecosystem, in companies like Consensys and dYdX.
The third fund marked a strategic pivot toward expanding utilities, going beyond pure finance to support payments and consumer applications projects such as Ethena and Axie Infinity maker Sky Mavis. This latest fund, Fund IV, is focused on what the company calls “reengineering finance,” supporting startups building blockchain-native infrastructure for global markets.
Despite the company’s momentum, CMT’s capital raise came at some of the most muted risks in years. Galaxy Digital reports this Second quarter 2025 reportCrypto startups raised just $1.97 billion in venture capital across 378 deals, a 59% drop from the previous quarter.
The total made the second quarter the second-weakest period for crypto VC activity since late 2020. Even after adjusting for a one-time $2 billion investment in Binance’s government bonds earlier this year, venture allocations remain sharp below previous cycles. By comparison, more than $13 billion in new capital flowed into the sector in the first quarter of 2022 alone.
