Venture Capitalists Take Crypto Back to School in New Courtship

As crypto’s reputation undergoes a cautious rehabilitation in the court of public opinion, venture capital firms are funding a new wave of blockchain activity on college campuses.

A group of specialist digital-asset investors — including Collab+Currency, Consensys Mesh, Artemis and Hydra Ventures — has pooled together roughly 600 Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency and widely viewed as a building block for the next phase of digital finance. The funding flows through student-run clubs from Michigan to Oregon under an initiative known as Dorm DAO.

The program, which combines capital with research budgets and internship pipelines, reflects a shift in ...