Venice AI just closed a $65 million Series A that values the company at $1 billion. The round, led by Dragonfly with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Morgan Creek Digital, gives investors an 8.98% equity stake in the company. Those same investors also received a vesting grant of 1.5 million VVV tokens and warrants for an additional 5 million tokens stretched over eight years.
A hybrid model that forces alignment
The structure is deliberate. Venice, co-founded by crypto veteran Erik Voorhees, is attempting to solve one of the more persistent headaches in crypto-native companies: the disconnect between people who own equity and people who hold the token. By giving equity investors a meaningful allocation of VVV tokens, subject to a one-year lock-up period, the company is betting that aligned incentives will produce better outcomes for everyone.
The burn strategy
Venice has been running a revenue-based buy-and-burn program for VVV since late 2025. The mechanics are straightforward: the company uses a portion of its revenue to purchase VVV tokens on the open market and then permanently removes them from circulation.
