Shining City on a Hill

“Shining City on a Hill” – a cartoon that illustrates how America is recruiting back companies and talent in a bid to make it the new capital of the blockchain industry.

Under previous US administrations, many blockchain and crypto countries setup their operations in Dubai, Singapore as well as the Canton of Zug in Switzerland.

These offered regulatory clarity and advantageous tax laws, but the actual locus of the industry was based in London.

According to the Recap Report, London has 2,173 people working in crypto-based jobs and over 800 crypto-based companies.

The city also hosted the second-highest number of crypto-related events and conferences throughout the year.

However, even during this time, America dominated the early investment landscape, in Q4’24, the U.S. accounting for 46% of all capital invested in cryptocurrency startups and 36% of all venture capital deals involved U.S.-based companies.

With the enormous investments into AI (e.g. Anthropic’s $3.5 billion Series E round at a $61.5 billion post-money), it is likely that Silicon Valley AI will start to bleed into the decentralized and agentic AI spaces in the blockchain space.

Also, with the new administration, a number of US companies are starting to trumpet the “Made in the USA” line and firms are starting to refocus on the market.

For example a16z closed its crypto hub in London on January 24, 2025 announcing, “we have chosen to focus on the US given the new administration’s strong policy momentum and will therefore be closing our UK office” stated Anthony Albanese, COO of their crypto fund that has around $7BN under management.