Some venture capitalists are nurturing small upstarts amid the ongoing crypto winter.

Zoom in: Rarely as of late is the venture capitalist making it rain on the crypto sector. Rather, investments are small and are going to smaller operations whose missions are pointed at boning up the crypto ecosystem, VCs tell Axios.

• Crypto investing in dollar terms has fallen significantly since peaks reached only last year, but it’s not zero.

What they’re saying: “There has definitely been a shift to earlier [investment] stages, and it seems like the most activity has been at the seed stage,” Spencer Bogart, general partner at Blockchain Capital, tells Axios.

• “This is a notable departure from 18 months ago when we saw a lot of high-profile activity in the mid- to late-stage of the market,” Bogart says.
• “Later-stage growth capital is much harder to come by these days as companies need to meet a higher bar in terms of real traction and growth,” Shan Aggarwal, head of corporate development and Coinbase Ventures, tells Axios.