Volt Capital raises $10 million to back early-stage crypto startups

Volt Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the cryptocurrency industry, tells Axios that it raised $10 million for its first fund.

Why it matters: Volt plans to maintain its focus on early-stage startups, which are being increasingly ignored by venture capital firms that are raising ever-larger funds.

• The firm will focus on startups building end-user services, digital asset intermediaries (like fiat-to-token conversion), decentralized finance, and more traditional fintech companies that plan to integrate cryptocurrencies into their products.
• Investors in the fund include Union Square Ventures’ Albert Wenger, ex-Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Founders Fund's Brian Singerman, Elad Gil, Digital Currency Group, and CMT Digital.

Backstory: Volt general partner Soona Amhaz says her crypto interest initially led her to helping create a newsletter on the subject back in late 2017, just as VC investing in the space took off.

• That’s also how she started meeting startup and project founders at the earliest stages, a network she's now parlaying into a venture fund.
• “It was surprising to me who would get funded, and who wouldn’t,” she says, adding that her early access to entrepreneurs and gave her a better vantage point than some of the generalist VCs who were beginning to make some investments in the industry.