Crypto Crashes Rattle Venture Capitalists After $19 Billion Haul

Crypto venture capital funds are confronting an identity crisis.

Plummeting digital-asset prices and a wave of market consolidations are exposing the fragility of an industry that boomed on speculation but has struggled to build sustainable, revenue-generating businesses.

Retail traders have continued to drift away from digital art and memecoins, while token prices have crashed — a casualty of the rug pulls and day-trader blowups that followed last year’s market crash. Now crypto VCs are being pulled toward a more traditional startup playbook: product-market fit, monetization, and long-term user retention.

The pressure is mounting as the broader market sours. Bitcoin ...