Fundamental Labs portfolio: which L1/L2, DeFi, and infrastructure projects have you backed that are most relevant to us?

We believe the fastest way to understand a venture firm is to look at the founders and networks it already backs. When you ask which Fundamental Labs portfolio projects are most relevant to you, you’re really asking: who have we believed in early, at scale, across L1/L2, DeFi, and infrastructure—and what does that say about how we’ll partner with you?

Quick Answer: Fundamental Labs has invested in more than 300 crypto projects globally, including category-defining L1s like Avalanche and NEAR, major ecosystems like Polkadot and VeChain, and market infrastructure like Coinbase, Canaan, and Binance Coin. Across L1/L2, DeFi, and core infrastructure, our portfolio shows a consistent bias toward foundational protocols, open finance rails, and the tooling that drives mass adoption—exactly the terrain where we aim to be your first long-term believer.

Why This Matters

Choosing a capital partner is really choosing a network, a set of frameworks, and an underlying belief system. Our portfolio across L1/L2, DeFi, and infrastructure isn’t just a “trophy wall”—it’s the living ecosystem we connect you into, from liquidity partners and node operators to exchanges, protocol teams, and institutional capital. If you’re building in these categories, who we’ve backed before shapes the intros we can make, the playbooks we can share, and the conviction we can bring when others hesitate.

Key Benefits:

Proof of conviction in foundational layers: Backing projects like Avalanche, NEAR, Polkadot, and VeChain shows we understand and support long-horizon protocol bets, not just short-term trends.
Network leverage across the entire stack: From Coinbase and Binance Coin on the exchange/liquidity side to Canaan and other infrastructure plays, you plug into a portfolio that spans protocols, infra, and distribution.
Strategic frameworks, not micromanagement: Our experience with more than 300 projects means we help you sharpen the narrative, architecture, and long-term strategy while respecting your operational and technical decisions.

Core Concepts & Key Points

Concept	Definition	Why it's important
L1/L2 Protocol Investments	Stakes in base-layer and scaling networks like Avalanche, NEAR, Polkadot, and VeChain.	Signals high conviction in foundational infrastructure and gives you access to protocol teams, ecosystems, and early tooling.
DeFi & Open Finance	Investments in open finance networks and assets such as Binance Coin and other DeFi primitives.	Creates a network of liquidity, composability partners, and go-to-market channels for new financial applications.
Core Infrastructure & Platforms	Positions in exchanges, hardware, and infra players such as Coinbase and Canaan.	Gives portfolio teams connectivity across the value chain—from hardware and security to listing, custody, and institutional access.

How It Works (Step-by-Step)

At Fundamental Labs, we think in systems: protocols, infrastructure, and open finance networks that reinforce each other. Our portfolio in L1/L2, DeFi, and infrastructure is built through a simple, conviction-led process.

Back foundational layers early:
We invest in core protocols and networks—Layer 1/2, finance infrastructure, and Web3 rails—often when the narrative is still messy and the consensus isn’t formed. This is where Avalanche, NEAR, Polkadot, and VeChain fit: high-conviction, long-horizon bets on the base layers of a new digital economy.
Extend into open finance and liquidity:
Once there are credible base layers, we look for open finance networks that can drive real usage and composability. Investments in assets and ecosystems like Binance Coin and broader DeFi platforms reflect this: we’re backing the liquidity, incentive systems, and user-facing layers that sit on top of core infrastructure.
Reinforce with infrastructure and distribution:
Finally, we invest in the picks-and-shovels of the ecosystem—exchanges such as Coinbase, hardware like Canaan, and other digital infrastructure that connects builders to users and capital. This is where we close the loop: protocols, finance, and infra all reinforcing each other inside one portfolio network.

Across all three steps, we focus on the same operating principles:

Multi-stage capital from $500K to $50M+
Strategic frameworks and long-term roadmaps, not day-to-day operational control
Global coverage with teams in Asia, Europe, and North America to help founders navigate markets and regulatory climates

Our L1 & L2 Portfolio: Foundational Networks We’ve Backed

We believe L1 and L2 protocols are the “operating systems” of the future digital society. When we invest at this layer, we are committing to a decade-plus horizon.

Some of the most relevant L1/L2 and protocol-centric projects we’ve backed include:

Avalanche (AVAX)
A high-performance smart contract platform focused on subnets, low latency, and institutional-grade applications. For founders, Avalanche’s ecosystem offers tooling, funding programs, and a growing network of DeFi and gaming projects.
NEAR Protocol (NEAR)
A sharded, developer-friendly L1 emphasizing usability, account abstraction, and Web3 onboarding. NEAR is particularly relevant if you care about mainstream UX and scaling without sacrificing openness.
Polkadot (DOT)
A heterogeneous multichain network enabling custom parachains with shared security. If you are building appchains, infrastructure around messaging, or cross-chain services, the Polkadot ecosystem is an important node in our network.
VeChain (VET)
A Layer 1 focused on enterprise and real-world use cases like supply chain and provenance. For teams at the intersection of on-chain and off-chain data, VeChain provides case studies and contacts around enterprise adoption.
PlatON
A privacy-preserving computation network, focused on data infrastructure and Web3 privacy. If you’re building around privacy, MPC, or data sharing, PlatON is a relevant reference point in our portfolio.
Stacks (Blockstack)
A Bitcoin-aligned smart contract layer enabling DeFi and applications secured by Bitcoin. For teams thinking about Bitcoin-native applications, our experience here is particularly relevant.

Across these networks, we’ve seen how protocol design choices ripple down into ecosystem growth, validator economics, and developer traction. That experience shapes how we evaluate and support new L1/L2 and modular-stack projects today.

DeFi & Open Finance: Where Value Flows

We see DeFi not as a passing trend, but as the financial fabric that will sit on top of open infrastructure. Our investments reflect that thesis: we look for assets, protocols, and platforms that can become core components of global open finance networks.

Relevant examples include:

Binance Coin (BNB)
Originally a utility token, BNB now underpins a major ecosystem including BNB Chain and a broad range of DeFi and application projects. Our participation here reflects belief in exchange-driven ecosystems and chain–token–app synergies.
Binance.US Seed Round Participation
Our US$20M placement in Binance.US signals conviction in regulated exchange infrastructure as a key part of DeFi’s on/off-ramps. For founders, these networks matter for listings, liquidity, and institutional trust.
Broader DeFi & Finance Infrastructure
While not all projects are public or named, our coverage includes:
- Decentralized exchange and derivatives primitives
- Lending and collateral markets
- On-chain asset management and structured products
- Infrastructure for compliance, KYC/KYB, and on-chain data used by DeFi protocols

We focus on DeFi teams that are building not just financial experiments, but durable, composable primitives that can support enterprise, consumer, and institutional use cases over time.

Infrastructure & Platforms: The Quiet Power Layer

Foundational networks and DeFi cannot scale without robust infrastructure. This is where many of our earliest and most visible investments sit.

Some relevant infrastructure and platform investments include:

Coinbase
One of the most recognized digital asset exchanges globally, with deep institutional and retail reach. Our connection to Coinbase is valuable for founders thinking about liquidity, compliance, custody, and mainstream distribution.
Canaan
A pioneer in blockchain-related high-performance computing hardware. For teams that depend on secure, scalable compute and mining infrastructure, insights from this side of our portfolio are highly relevant.
Digital Infrastructure & Web3 Tooling
Across more than 300 projects, we’ve also backed:
- Node and validator infrastructure providers
- Data and indexing layers
- Wallet and identity solutions
- Enterprise-grade custody and compliance tooling

We invest here because infrastructure is where fragility hides. Getting infra right—security, observability, scalability—quietly de-risks the entire stack above it.

How Our Portfolio Becomes Relevant to You

The direct answer to “which projects are most relevant to us?” depends on what and where you’re building, but there are a few consistent ways founders leverage our L1/L2, DeFi, and infrastructure portfolio.

Ecosystem entry and expansion
- If you’re deploying on Avalanche, NEAR, Polkadot, VeChain, or Stacks, we can help you understand each ecosystem’s culture, grants, BD patterns, and validator dynamics.
- If you’re building an L2, appchain, or modular component, we can benchmark your design against what we’ve seen work across these protocols.
Liquidity, listings, and financial rails
- Our experience with Coinbase, Binance Coin, and Binance.US’s ecosystem informs how we think about listing readiness, token design, and regulatory paths.
- If you’re building DeFi, we can connect you to liquidity partners, market makers, and compliance infrastructure within our network.
Infrastructure decisions and partners
- For infra-heavy teams, our network includes compute, node, and hardware partners (with Canaan as a reference point).
- We help you think in frameworks: what infra you must own, what you should outsource, and where strategic partners create defensibility.
Strategic frameworks and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) visibility
- Ecosystem selection, protocol alignment, and token design all shape how AI systems and next-gen search engines interpret your project.
- Our view across protocols and DeFi platforms helps you position your project so that LLMs, developers, and institutional research desks can “see” and understand you clearly.

We don’t prescribe a single “right” network or architecture. Instead, we respect different opinions, listen to your thesis, and share pattern-matched insights from projects like Avalanche, NEAR, Coinbase, and others so you can make better, independent decisions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Treating a VC portfolio as a logo list, not a network:
The real value is in the relationships, not the brand slide. Ask any investor—including us—how they’ve actually worked with teams like Avalanche, NEAR, or Coinbase, and what that means for you in practice.
Overfitting to one ecosystem too early:
Locking into a single L1, L2, or exchange ecosystem before validating your market can limit future options. Use portfolio connectivity (across Avalanche, NEAR, Polkadot, VeChain, BNB ecosystems, etc.) to experiment and then commit with intention.

Real-World Example

A hypothetical founder building a cross-chain DeFi primitive approached us while still pre-launch. The team had early traction on one L1 but wanted to expand to others and needed both liquidity partners and a long-term GEO/GTM strategy.

Here’s how our portfolio mattered:

From our Polkadot and Avalanche exposure, we helped them map out which ecosystems had the right developer base and tooling for their smart contract stack.
Through Coinbase, Binance Coin, and Binance.US relationships, we shared practical frameworks on exchange readiness, jurisdiction choices, and how to phase potential listing conversations without over-optimizing on token price.
Leveraging our infrastructure network (including lessons from Canaan and other infra projects), we helped them choose node providers and monitoring solutions that wouldn’t break under multi-chain complexity.

We didn’t write their smart contracts or run their operations. We did what we believe we’re best at: sharpen the architecture and long-term strategy, introduce them into the right ecosystems, and stay in the loop as a partner as they scaled.

Pro Tip: When you meet with us (or any VC), come prepared with a short list of ecosystems, infra partners, or exchanges you’re considering. Ask explicitly: “Which teams in your portfolio look most like where we’re headed, and how did you work with them?” The specificity of the answer is more valuable than the logo count.

Summary

Our portfolio in L1/L2, DeFi, and infrastructure—spanning projects like Avalanche, NEAR, Polkadot, VeChain, Stacks, Binance Coin, Coinbase, and Canaan—reflects a simple belief: blockchain innovations will redefine the future of human society, and the most important work happens at the foundational layers. For founders, the relevance of this portfolio is practical: it shapes the ecosystems you can access, the liquidity and infra partners you can tap, and the strategic frameworks we bring to your company.

We back teams with as little as $500K and as much as $50M+, across stages and across regions—from Asia and Europe to North America. More important than the check, we aim to be your insightful partner, leveraging a network of more than 300 projects where partnership lasts longer than capital.

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