Venture capitalists are kicking off 2026 with a bang. They doled out $588 million to crypto startups in the first two weeks of January, according to DefiLlama data. Top investors this month include Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom Fund, Revolut’s Vlad Yatsenko, Citadel Securities, and a slew of VCs, including Lightspeed, Paradigm, and YZi Labs. Their targets? Payments, trading, and centralised exchanges across a variety of venture investment rounds, underscoring robust investor appetite for institutional-grade ...