500+ Crypto Companies Mapped - Who's Building, Who's Connected.

500+ Crypto Companies Mapped - Who's Building, Who's Connected.

381e35

381e35

2/5/2026

#curated#web3#defi#crypto-startups#market-research#partnerships
When you spend your time building in crypto, it is not uncommon to tune out the outside world. Then you surface only to realize everything has shifted and the people you once knew are long gone.
It's not just you. That's happening right now while I write this. Something happened. Prices are down; why? Couldn't tell you.
Staying up to date with everything in crypto is impossible. Staying up to date with everyone in your network is its own full-time job. So, as we prepared to launch faviconPlug, I found my team needing answers that I had not prepared and were not readily available.
As a builder in the web3 industry, it is easy to accumulate years of tribal knowledge. Yet, there was not a single place I could send them to navigate the landscape.
  • Who are all the new entrants into the industry?
  • What vertical does each company occupy?
  • What companies would be great to work with?
  • What integrations would be ideal to have?
  • Who can we partner with?
  • Where are the relationships not visible in public?
  • What investors are active in this sector?
Those are the questions I set out to answer. Below is a curated output from my efforts.

The Directory

This database covers 500+ web3 and blockchain startups across DeFi, infrastructure, L1/L2 protocols, wallets, and more. Each entry maps their connections to VCs, auditors, technology providers, and key people. Use it for business development, competitive analysis, market research, or just figuring out who's actually building what in the ecosystem.
This data is updated regularly. If your company should be included, or if you spot an error, reach out to favicon@plugdotteeoh and let us know.
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1confirmation

1confirmation

Venture Capital

1confirmation.com

An early stage venture fund that supports exceptional founders fueling the decentralization of the web and society. Open networks are empowering the masses.

1kx

1kx

Venture Capital

1kx.network

A leading global investment firm specializing in blockchain technologies that explores the art and science of network building to bring the best possible version of a decentralized future to life

a16z crypto

a16z crypto

Venture Capital

a16zcrypto.com

a16z crypto is a venture capital fund that invests in crypto startups. We back bold entrepreneurs building the next internet. We are now beginning the third era of the internet — what many call web3 —

Aave Grants DAO

Aave Grants DAO

Venture Capital

aavegrants.org

Community-driven grants program funding ecosystem development for Aave protocol, facilitating the transition to more community-owned protocol development and governance

Accel

Accel

Venture Capital

accel.com

Venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in cloud/SaaS, consumer, fintech, AI, and developer tools

Apostro

Apostro

Venture Capital

apostro.xyz

We kickstart and curate onchain money markets with proprietary risk intel engine. Advanced onchain money markets with specific trading strategies for capital efficiency and risk protections.

Aragon

Aragon

Venture Capital

aragon.org

The Home of Onchain Organizations - building the infrastructure for the next generation of onchain protocols that helps networks run securely at scale through capital allocation, governance, and owner

Archetype

Archetype

Venture Capital

archetype.fund

Early-stage venture fund focused on accelerating the programmable future. Crypto-native team backing the next generation of crypto founders who are disrupting the status quo, creating entirely new mar

Artemis

Artemis

Venture Capital

artemis.xyz

Fundamental Metrics for Stablecoins and Crypto - standardizes blockchain data into a single open data platform providing institutional-grade metrics for investors and protocols

Beosin

Beosin

Venture Capital

beosin.com

World-leading blockchain security and compliance solutions company with formal verification technology and on-chain data intelligent analysis technology. The privacy layer for Web 3 protecting fundame

Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners

Venture Capital

bvp.com

Leading venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs from early days through every stage of growth. Known for their sector-specific investment roadmaps and deep operational expertise across AI & ML, Bio

Betaworks

Betaworks

Venture Capital

betaworks.com

Thematic investor focused on AI/ML technologies across multiple subcategories and modalities, building a foundational part of the NYC tech ecosystem through thesis-based investing and cohort-based pro

Bitwise Asset Management

Bitwise Asset Management

Venture Capital

bitwiseinvestments.com

Crypto Index Fund & ETF Provider focused on guiding institutional investors into the crypto future

Blockchain Capital

Blockchain Capital

Venture Capital

blockchaincapital.com

Pioneering venture capital fund dedicated to crypto builders since 2013. First venture fund focused exclusively on the crypto ecosystem, with over $2 billion in assets under management across six fund

Understanding who is out there is the first step, and it helped my team immediately. Put a little information in front of someone and things start to happen like magic.
But execution, is where it gets hard. Because of this, you see a lot of marketing devoid of any human touch as Claude becomes the Senior Editor on every post pushed to /blog. The words have been distilled into technical jargon and deciphering the meaning is futile. How did we get here...?

The Connections

Knowing who you're talking to is one piece of this puzzle, but knowing what to say is the other.
How can you have an impact on the market if you don't study what has and hasn't worked? So, armed with the data we need, let's dig deeper and reach a level of understanding few others have.
As you explore, one thing becomes obvious: We are all building the same thing. Many of us have visions far more aligned than you would realize at first glance.
With just a few minutes of looking, you can answer the questions that matter:
  • Would this company be a good user of my technical stack?
  • Do we share social positioning?
  • Are there connections to the people that I already have?
The list goes on. The data can't tell you what to do, but it gives you a magnifying glass on everyone who carries weight in your orbit. First step done.

The Archetypes

Just one moment, though. Give your team this data raw and you will find yourself without effective conclusions and something you can't be very confident in. The picture is far bigger than a list of names, but it is exceptionally easy to forget that.
To avoid this, for our team at faviconPlug the next step was to invert the relationships. faviconOur go-to-market depended on proving things fundamentally valuable to the market. We needed to know who was using it, who was building on it, and who was investing in it. We needed to know how to reach those people and how to build relationships with them.
As a concrete example: For us, one pillar of this meant understanding how curators operate in the market. We know their onchain stats. We needed to know who they are and what they think, and we set off to answer that:

Lending & Borrowing

16 companies · 3 / 19

Aave

Aave

aave.com

Backed Finance

Backed Finance

backed.fi

BENQI

BENQI

benqi.fi

Block Analitica

Block Analitica

blockanalitica.com

Clearpool

Clearpool

clearpool.finance

Compound

Compound

compound.finance

Credix

Credix

credix.finance

Credora Network

Credora Network

credora.io

IPOR Protocol

IPOR Protocol

ipor.io

Liquity

Liquity

liquity.org

Maple Finance

Maple Finance

maple.finance

Moonwell

Moonwell

moonwell.fi

Morpho

Morpho

morpho.org

Silo Finance

Silo Finance

silo.finance

Unstoppable Domains

Unstoppable Domains

unstoppabledomains.com

Warden Finance

Warden Finance

warden.finance

But we quickly noticed a fundamental problem in our thinking. A simple list of who operates in similar areas is not enough. There is no objectively correct view. No arrangement guarantees the best conclusions. Yet, there are better and worse ways to look at the data of the market we all operate in.
The trap most founders, startup teams, and builders fall into is believing that more data means better decisions. It doesn't, not at all unfortunately. You can stare at a spreadsheet of 500 companies and still have no idea who to call first or what plan to enact. The structure tells you what exists. It doesn't tell you what matters or how to act on it.
What moves the needle is understanding how the market talks about itself. The words that surface when people describe their work to each other. The protocols they reference. The auditors they trust. The people whose names keep appearing in cap tables and advisor lists. These patterns reveal the invisible social fabric that determines who gets intros, who gets distribution, and who gets ignored.

The Language

At this point, we had to stop asking "who is out there" and start asking "what are they clustering around." The first question gave us a list. The second gave us a map. The map is what helped us prioritize, and hopefully it does you as well.
To avoid significant time-sinks that result in directionless discovery, we turn our focus to the social ties of each entity in our map. We understand their prose, service, and objectives so we have everything we need to have a fundamental understanding of where each sector of the market lives:
With all this available to us, the final step is seeing these patterns in context. Individual keywords tell you what concepts matter. But most of our insight came from seeing how companies within the same vertical cluster around shared language.

The Clusters

When you look at a category like Yield Aggregators or DEXs, the keywords they share are far from random. They reveal the mental models that define that space. The companies clustered tightly around the same keywords are either direct competitors or natural partners. The outliers using different language are either ahead of the curve or solving a different problem entirely.
There is a very obvious story being told by the way these companies talk about themselves. The story is not always what you expect, but it is always there.
Finally, we've reached the point where it is easy to get nerd-sniped. There are so many things you could do here. Go add sentiment analysis. Implement social tracking. I considered both of those and many other things as well, but the data is a tool. It's not the work.
If we accumulate a bunch of data and don't know how to use it, what's the point? For Plug, this exercise wasn't academic. We needed to know who we were building for, who we could partner with, and who would amplify our message.
The landscape gave us the map. The connections showed us the paths. The keywords revealed the language. The overlap told us exactly where to start. So, each morning we wake up and work through our graph. But the spreadsheet hasn't sent a single DM. We do.

Now What?

If you've made it this far, you're probably not casually browsing. You're building something. You're trying to figure out how to navigate a web3 industry that moves too fast, talks too much, and rarely says anything you needed to know. Maybe you're a team member being asked to do way too much. It doesn't matter because the answer is the same for all of us:
The best partnerships come from shared vocabulary. Two companies in the same vertical using different language will struggle to collaborate. Two companies in different verticals using the same language will build something incredible together.
Set off and explore your graph. Your network is smaller than you think but more powerful than you realize. Most of the meaningful relationships in crypto are two or three introductions away. The people you already know can get you to anyone. You just have to ask.
The landscape of crypto in 2026 is simultaneously more crowded and more collaborative than ever. There are more companies building, more capital flowing, and more infrastructure emerging. The people doing the building are just waiting for someone to reach out.
faviconIf your list is still small, reach out to me directly. If your list is big, start with the tight clusters. The companies that speak your language. The ones that will get it immediately. The ones that will be excited to talk to you.
Capturing Upside on Aave Loops.