Crypto VC funding surging again sounds like a rally, until you trace where the money actually lands

Dragonfly Capital closed its fourth fund at $650 million this week, the same size as its 2022 vehicle, raised into a venture market Fortune calls a “mass extinction event.”

The headline reads like a vote of confidence: institutional capital returning, crypto winter thawing, alt season loading. But peel back one layer and the picture warps.

Dragonfly’s partners describe a pivot toward fintech rails and tokenized real-world assets, with the expectation of fewer “native app tokens.”

This isn’t a…