Framework Ventures announced Friday a $400 million fund to back the intersection of tokenization, stablecoins and frontier technologies, betting that blockchain's next big opportunity lies in financing capital-intensive industries like AI, robotics and energy rather than crypto-native speculation.
The San Francisco-based venture firm, co-founded by Michael Anderson, said the industry has moved from building products for crypto users to solving capital formation problems for real-world sectors through tokenization and stablecoins.
"The industry has moved in the direction of bringing these technologies - tokenization, blockchain itself, decentralized networks - to other markets that can utilize the technology in a new and novel way," Anderson told CoinDesk.
He contrasted the current market with the 2020-21 cycle, when much of crypto revolved around DeFi protocols, DAOs and products built primarily for crypto-native audiences. "There was this time in 2020 and 2021 where we were building crypto products to serve crypto users," he said.
Tokenization as collateral for AI hardware
One example is AI infrastructure. Framework believes tokenization could unlock cheaper financing for GPUs and other computing hardware by turning those assets into blockchain-based collateral. Traditional securitization markets struggle to package individual servers or computing equipment into investable products, Anderson said. Stablecoins, with more than $300 billion circulating onchain, create a new pool of capital for asset-backed lending.
"We have the capital onchain to finance this industry," he said.
The same logic extends to energy. Framework has invested in Daylight, which finances residential solar projects through a distributed energy network, and Uranium Digital, a tokenized marketplace for physical uranium.
Founders from traditional finance, not crypto anonymity
Anderson noted a shift in founder profiles. Rather than anonymous developers launching speculative protocols, many builders now come from traditional finance, energy or industrial technology. They bring deep domain expertise and use blockchain as the financial plumbing to solve real-world problems.
Framework's recent investments reflect that pattern. They include TVL Capital, founded by former members of Morgan Stanley's digital assets team; robotics startup Mecka AI, which supplies training data to frontier AI companies; and Plasma, a blockchain-based banking platform built around stablecoin payments.
Broader industry currents
The firm's strategy mirrors a wider movement across digital assets. Global banks and asset managers are increasingly using blockchain rails to issue, trade and settle traditional financial assets. Stablecoins are becoming part of cross-border payments and treasury operations as banks and fintechs modernize payment infrastructure.
"What if 2021 was the aberration," Anderson said, "and we're now moving toward fundamental utility, fundamental business models and leveraging this technology in ways that aren't primarily speculative?"
Why this matters for finance professionals
For finance professionals, the message is clear: blockchain is no longer just a venue for crypto trading. It is evolving into a financing layer for real-world assets - from AI hardware to energy projects. Understanding tokenization, stablecoins, and onchain capital formation is becoming as relevant as traditional securitization and project finance. Professionals who want to track these shifts can build expertise through resources like AI for Finance training.
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