What counts as wealth, capital markets and crypto here
Any company building technology for how assets are invested, traded, held or issued – retail and institutional wealth management platforms, investment and brokerage infrastructure, trading and market-data systems, crypto exchanges and custody, decentralised finance protocols, and tokenisation of real-world assets. The sibling vertical Fintech and payments takes how money moves and is stored; this vertical takes how it is invested. Payment stablecoins sit in fintech; stablecoin trading and custody sit here. Companies doing both carry both tags, and many do.
- Family
- Finance
- Coverage since
- 2015
- Desks
- 4 of 4
- Reviewed
- 21 Sep 2026
The four desks
Each is a live, filterable data page – the numbers move weekly
The 5 sub-themes
These are the tags actually applied to records in this vertical
The two debates
Where the data forces a question – each with a verdict
Is crypto a European venture category, or an American one that occasionally lands here?
Of the eight funds on the investors desk, the two dedicated crypto funds with published size – Framework Ventures at $400M and Coinbase Ventures – are in San Francisco. The one European crypto specialist, Ledger Cathay, is €100M. The largest European crypto round tracked, Flowdesk's €46M, was led by Cathay Innovation from an AI thesis.
The case forEurope has the regulatory clarity – MiCA, Swiss FINMA licences, the Zug ecosystem – that the US lacks. Ledger is the most valuable crypto hardware company in the world and is French. The founders are here; the infrastructure is here.
The case againstThe capital is not. Every large crypto cheque available to a European founder on this desk comes from San Francisco. European crypto funds are seed-sized, and the generalists that do write bigger cheques treat crypto as one AI-adjacent theme among many.
Where we land: Both are true, and the gap between them is the story. Europe leads on regulation and on certain infrastructure companies; it lags badly on dedicated growth capital. Founders here should expect to raise seed locally and Series B from the US, and the investors desk will look this way until a European crypto growth fund appears in the data.
Does wealthtech belong in the same vertical as crypto at all?
September's two fresh rounds – ETFBOOK's €11.3M Series B and Quartz's €3.2M pre-seed – are wealthtech, funded by traditional growth and seed investors. The event calendar splits completely: SuperReturn and IPEM for capital markets, Crypto Valley and ETHPrague for crypto, with almost no overlap in attendance.
The case forTokenisation is collapsing the distinction. ETF platforms, trading infrastructure and custody are the same problem whether the asset is a bond or a token, and the buyers – banks, asset managers, exchanges – are converging on both.
The case againstThe people, funds and events are entirely separate today. Grouping them produces a desk where a Zurich ETF data company and a Prague Ethereum protocol share a ranking, which helps neither founder find the other's investors.
Where we land: Sesamers keeps them together because the taxonomy tracks where the industry is going, not where the conference organisers are today – and Frankfurt Digital Finance, where Deutsche Boerse discusses tokenisation with the ECB in the room, is the proof that convergence is real. But the sub-theme tags let readers filter, and the events desk labels which circuit each event belongs to.
Who to know
Start on these records
Four terms
The vocabulary you will meet on the desks
MiCA
The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, the first comprehensive crypto licensing regime in a major jurisdiction. The reason European crypto companies have regulatory clarity their US peers lack – and the reason Spain, Malta and Cyprus host so many licensed entities.
Tokenisation
Issuing a traditional asset – a bond, a fund share, a property – as a token on a blockchain. The sub-theme where capital markets and crypto converge, and the subject of Frankfurt Digital Finance.
Market maker
A firm that provides liquidity by continuously quoting buy and sell prices. In crypto, Flowdesk is Europe's largest – its €46M Series B is the biggest round on this desk.
Custody
Holding assets securely on a client's behalf. In crypto, the regulated activity that turns an exchange into a financial institution – and the sub-theme most events on this desk carry.
All verticals, by family
Twelve families – each carries its own icon and accent token
Frequently asked
About this vertical and how we cover it
What is the difference between this vertical and Fintech and payments?
Fintech covers how money moves and is stored – payments, open banking, embedded finance. This vertical covers how it is invested, traded and held – wealth platforms, trading infrastructure, crypto exchanges, tokenisation. Companies doing both carry both tags.
Is there a European crypto growth fund?
Not in the Sesamers database. Ledger Cathay at €100M is the largest European crypto specialist; the growth cheques – Framework at $5-50M – come from San Francisco. This is a real gap, not a data gap.
Which event should a crypto founder attend?
Crypto Valley Conference in Zug if regulation matters to you; ETHPrague if you are building on Ethereum and need developers; Money20/20 Europe if your product is a payment stablecoin and your buyers are banks.
Which event should a wealthtech or capital-markets founder attend?
IPEM Global in Paris or SuperReturn in Berlin if your buyers are fund managers; Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum in Frankfurt if they are listed companies and their investors.
How often does this page change?
The four desks refresh weekly from the live database. The editorial sections are reviewed quarterly or when a major round or fund close changes the picture.
Can I suggest a company, fund or event?
Yes – and for this vertical, European crypto and wealthtech fund suggestions are especially useful. Use the suggest links on each desk. We verify before publishing.