Placeholder VC
Venture capitalNew York · Seed–Series A · 6 people tracked
Also known as PLACEHOLDER MANAGEMENT, LLC
Investment thesis
Placeholder is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage crypto and decentralized networks. Investing since 2017, it backs cryptonetworks, protocols, and Web3 infrastructure and applications, and publishes extensive research on token economics, network governance, decentralized finance, and blockchain scaling. Its portfolio spans smart contract platforms, DeFi protocols, and modular blockchain infrastructure, reflecting a thesis that decentralized networks can capture value in ways distinct from traditional companies.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 6 people
from the firm's website
What they invest in
from 28 of 54 portfolio companiesCrypto & Web3 ×24Fintech ×11Data & Infrastructure ×7Cloud Computing ×4Developer Tools ×4Enterprise Software ×4Consumer ×2SaaS ×2
HQs:United States×9Finland×1
Investments · 54 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathNerdWallet provides educational content and resources about investing, including articles, product reviews, and guidance on investment accounts and portfolio construction.
ConsumerFintechSan Francisco, US
Tim Chen(Executive Officer, Director)Jules Maltz(Director)Thomas Loverro(Director)
Matter Labs builds Prividium, an Ethereum-secured blockchain platform designed for banks and financial institutions to issue, settle, and manage digital assets with privacy and compliance controls.
Crypto & Web3Enterprise SoftwareFintechGeorge Town, Grand Cayman
Alex Gluchowski(Executive Officer, Director)Christopher Burniske(Director)Aleksandr Vlasov(Director)
Board seatChristopher Burniske· per SEC Form D
Seattle, US
Paul Gambill(Executive Officer, Director)Latif Peracha(Director)Jim Adler(Director)
Board seatChristopher Burniske· per SEC Form D · $4M raise · filed Sep 2020
New York, US
Hart Lambur(Director)Xuelin Lu(Director)Christopher Burniske(Director)
Board seatChristopher Burniske· per SEC Form D · $4M raise · filed Sep 2018
Avantgarde Finance structures real-world asset (RWA) backed looping strategies to enhance capital efficiency for on-chain participants.
Crypto & Web3Fintech
Celestia designs and operates custom, high-throughput blockchain infrastructure for enterprises, separating compute and storage to enable independent scaling.
Cloud ComputingCrypto & Web3Enterprise Software
Mustafa Al-Bassam(Chairman & CEO, Celestia Foundation)Nick White(Co-founder & CEO, Celestia Labs)Preston Evans(CTO, Celestia Labs)
Digital Asset Research provides data, research, and diligence services for institutional clients evaluating cryptocurrency and blockchain assets.
Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureEnterprise Software
Etherscan is a blockchain explorer platform that provides search, API, and analytics services for Ethereum and multiple other blockchains.
Crypto & Web3Data & Infrastructure
Matthew Tan(CEO & Founder)
Institutional DeFi platform building transparent, efficient, and scalable interest rate and credit markets with a regulated KYC/AML front-end.
Kamino is a DeFi protocol on Solana that combines lending, liquidity provision, and leveraged trading in a single platform.
Crypto & Web3Fintech
Obol provides distributed validator infrastructure and staking solutions for the Ethereum blockchain, serving institutional operators and AI agents.
Cloud ComputingCrypto & Web3Data & Infrastructure
Pocket Network provides decentralized infrastructure for Web3 applications, enabling developers to access blockchain data without relying on centralized providers.
Crypto & Web3Data & InfrastructureTampa, US
Pabel Nunez(Treasurer)Michael O'Rourke(President)Luis Correa(Vice President)Valerie Benitez(Secretary)Gregory M Karch(Authorized Representative, Attorney, DLT Law Group, P.A.)
ethereum.org is a public, open-source educational resource and community portal for the Ethereum blockchain network, maintained by a core team and thousands of global contributors.
Crypto & Web3Developer ToolsEdTech
WeatherXM operates a decentralized weather network where station owners earn cryptocurrency tokens for providing hyperlocal weather data; the platform offers weather data APIs for businesses and research organizations while maintaining a global community-powered DePIN infrastructure.
Climate TechCrypto & Web3IoT
Rows marked “SEC filing” are inferred from directors named on the company's SEC Form D — public regulatory data, not a portfolio list published by the firm.
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Placeholder VC invest at?
- Placeholder VC invests at the Seed, Series A stages.
- What sectors does Placeholder VC focus on?
- Placeholder VC focuses on Crypto & Web3.
- Where is Placeholder VC located?
- Placeholder VC is headquartered in New York, US.
From the blog
visit blog ↗Placeholder VC has recently analyzed Solana's validator economics and decentralization challenges, questioned assumptions about L1 token monetary premiums, and developed composite metrics for comparing smart contract network performance across multiple financial and usage dimensions. AI summary
Media · Podcasts & interviews
featuring the teamPlaceholder VC's Chris Burniske & Alex Evans @ OKCoin's $DCR/USD Listing
Decred · Chris Burniske
The Price and Value of Governance | Joel Monegro, Placeholder VC
TE Academy · Joel Monegro
🔴 Calculating Value & Risk in Crypto Investing - Chris Burniske (Placeholder VC)
The Blockcrunch Podcast · Chris Burniske
Co-investors · 21
Blockchain Capital is a venture firm that has partnered with crypto builders since 2013, investing across the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem.
Archetype is an early-stage crypto venture firm backing founders building crypto-native companies and protocols, providing support across investing, engineering, protocol and mechanism design, policy, and community-building.
ParaFi Capital is a multi-strategy investment firm operating across public and private markets, focused on financial technology and capital markets innovation, including digital assets.
Volt Capital is a crypto-native venture fund that originated from the Token Daily community platform and maintains a separate validator arm to deeply understand blockchain networks they don't even invest in. The firm focuses on early-stage companies that use crypto rails but have familiar Web2-style business models, deliberately targeting overlooked areas from previous cycles while other VCs chase newer narratives.
Hashed is a venture firm backing founders building in AI, crypto, blockchain, and frontier technology, with a global presence across key technology hubs.
Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in companies at their earliest, most formative stages, with a strong belief in the transformative power of design.
Weekend Fund is an early-stage venture fund started by Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt) and Vedika Jain, writing checks into consumer and B2B startups globally.
Dragonfly is a crypto-focused investment fund that backs researchers and builders working to advance the crypto ecosystem.
Earl Grey Capital is an early-stage venture fund founded by operators who previously built Clearbit, an API-first data company acquired by HubSpot in 2023.
Shima Capital is a $200M web3 seed fund led by Forbes 30 Under 30 investor and MIT instructor Yida Gao, who combines traditional finance, venture capital, and academic credentials rare among dedicated crypto funds. The firm maintains one of the highest early-stage deployment paces in crypto with over 100 investments in two years, using more than half its team for hands-on operational support through a proprietary platform that helps portfolio companies with talent, tokenomics, and specialized expertise like gaming.
▶9 more co-investors
Bain Capital CryptoFounders FundRedpoint VenturesNorthzoneSarona VenturesAglae VenturesBlockchange VenturesHyperchain CapitalDBA
Firms observed investing alongside Placeholder VC, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Placeholder VC's recorded portfolio.
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