Several VC-backed crypto projects are now trading at market caps far below their last private funding rounds.

That’s what happens when bull-market pricing meets reality.

Easy liquidity inflated private valuations. Growth projections were priced in years ahead. Once conditions tightened, those premiums disappeared fast.

What’s left is a reset. Public markets forcing price discovery, not narratives.

This matters because it explains why so many charts look “broken” while fundamentals haven’t completely collapsed. A lot of downside wasn’t about failure, it was about excess being unwound.

It also creates a split. Some of these projects will stay cheap because the valuation was never justified. Others are now trading at levels that assume no future growth at all.

That’s where opportunity comes from.

When private optimism flips into public pessimism, price often overshoots in both directions. We’re seeing that now.

Not everything is a buy. But dismissing the entire sector because VC valuations didn’t hold is usually how people miss the turn.