Nearly $1.2 Billion Raised, Bitcoin Startup Sector Grows Against the Tide
New research from venture capital firm Trammell Venture Partners (TVP) highlights continued growth in bitcoin native startup activity, with nearly $1.2 billion raised by early-stage companies between 2021 and 2024. Despite a broader downturn in crypto and tech venture capital markets during 2023 and 2024, Bitcoin-specific startup formation and funding showed resilience, particularly at the Pre-Seed stage.
According to the 2024 edition of TVP’s Bitcoin-Native Venture Capital Landscape Research Brief, Bitcoin Pre-Seed startup transaction volume rose 767% compared to 2021, signalling a maturing and sustained venture category. In 2024 alone, Pre-Seed transaction counts increased 50% year-over-year, while the overall deal count for Bitcoin-native startups grew by 31.8%.
“One or two years’ data might represent an anomaly, but with four consecutive years of year-over-year growth at the earliest stage of Bitcoin startup formation, the data now confirm a sustained, long-term venture category trend,” said Christopher Calicott, Managing Director at TVP.
What Is a Bitcoin-Native Company?
TVP defines a Bitcoin-native company as one whose product success is inherently aligned with Bitcoin’s success and which leverages the Bitcoin protocol stack in its core operations. This excludes companies that merely use Bitcoin as a payment method, focusing instead on those building on top of Bitcoin’s infrastructure.
Notably, while overall venture capital dollars in the crypto sector declined, TVP’s findings show that Bitcoin-specific investments bucked the trend. In 2024, Bitcoin-native deals made up a growing share of venture activity, with notable participation from institutional VC firms such as Draper Associates, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and Ribbit Capital.
Report Scope and Data Notes
TVP’s report excluded mining operations and late-stage outlier deals to focus on early-stage software and infrastructure startups. The data set includes activity from 2021 through 2024 and aims to offer clarity to allocators seeking long-term exposure to Bitcoin’s startup ecosystem. The full report is available for download via TVP’s official website.