<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Major crypto VC Variant Fund has raised a new $222 million fund targeting startups "at the earliest possible stage," according to an </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">announcement</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on Wednesday.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Variant founder Jesse Walden noted that the firm has further clarified its investment thesis for projects that "expand autonomy." This theme covers its previous investments in protocols like Ethereum and Solana and developer infrastructure like Blockaid, but also covers newer projects around AI.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Variant invests in technology that expands autonomy.
We focus on new markets, infrastructure, and applications that give users more agency through increased access, knowledge, and ownership," Walden said in an <a href="https://x.com/jessewldn/status/2062150761727848850">X post</a>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Walden noted the firm has made recent investments in agentic memory project Honcho, digital identity solution Octet, and here.now, "a 'cloud for agents' that enables ownership and composability of generated artifacts."</span></p>
