Hosts of Bankless Podcast Raising $35M Crypto Venture Fund: Sources

DENVER — The hosts of popular crypto podcast and newsletter Bankless are reportedly raising a $35 million venture capital fund to invest in seed-stage Web3 companies.

Show hosts David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams are to be general partners in the fund, said Ben Lakoff, also a GP. The trio comprise the fund’s investment committee, Lakoff told CoinDesk.

The fund, planned as a separate legal entity from the Bankless podcast, will nonetheless share its brand and likely enjoy the clout of one of the better-known content platforms in crypto media. One venture capital source told CoinDesk the combo of platform and investing arm would mean “incredible deal flow” for the nascent VC.

It’s the latest example of crypto media striking out into venture capital. Hoffman is on the ground at ETHDenver discussing the fund, another person told CoinDesk.

Founded in 2020 by Adams and Hoffman, Bankless has built an influential multimedia presence with its flagship podcast, newsletters, YouTube channel and its own decentralized autonomous organizatio (DAO), complete with a BANK governance token.

According to a preliminary website, the fund will focus on early-stage crypto companies and on “empowering pioneers to explore the frontier of Web3.”

The pair have also been outspoken supporters of Ethereum, decentralized finance (DeFi) and self-custody.

The move by Bankless into the venture capital sector appears to be a continuation of the brand’s foray into crypto investing that began last year. Bankless announced in November that it had acquired DeFi software project Earnifi under a newly created vertical called Bankless Labs.

“Bankless is going beyond media,” wrote Adams in a blog post at the time. “Now, we’re building tools for your DeFi journey.”

But according to Lakoff, Hoffman and Adams will put the kibosh on their private venture deals once the fund launches with capital from outside investors, at which point everything will run through the fund.

"We've all been angel investing individually for years," Lakoff said, "and now we’re putting all that time and energy into Bankless Ventures to accelerate the bankless movement and are able to bring along select LPs to participate."