For the crypto community, 2021 had been a magical year. It witnessed all kinds of extreme economic events and indicators that are totally beyond prediction. For ViaBTC Capital, 2021 was a brand-new starting point. ViaBTC Capital, an investment brand under ViaBTC Group, was officially founded in October 2021. At the same time, it also set up a $50 million special VC fund, which supports Web3.0 and Layer 2 infrastructures, as well as DeFi, NFT, and DAO applications. Moreover, the fund will also synergize crypto infrastructures and help projects implement their concepts. Following the vision of “Via Blockchain, making the world a better place”, ViaBTC Capital has built an investment alliance together with leading crypto investors, such as Pantera Capital, IOSG Ventures, and Shima Capital. This allows them to draw strength from each other while making joint efforts to help early-stage blockchain projects grow and gain recognition.
2021: A record-breaking year for the crypto space
According to PitchBook Data, VC funds invested about $30 billion in the crypto space in 2021, higher than the total amount of funding the field ever received since its inception.
Over the last year, the crypto market had seen plenty of new records. In terms of emerging crypto assets like NFTs, Sotheby’s sold an NFT collectible for $100 million, a new record set in 2021. In addition to art NFTs, NFTs representing in-game assets and digital land also surged in value. Last year, GameFi reached its peak: Axie Infinity’s 24-hour revenue hit $9.72 million, surpassing that of Honor of Kings, the world’s most profitable mobile game. The realization and breakthrough of Ethereum Layer 2 further unleashed the potential of DeFi, which attracted both individual and institutional investors and empowered the development of Web 3.0. Constitution DAO raised over $40 million to bid for a rare copy of the US Constitution, which captured the attention of the mainstream media.
Making diversified investments, with a focus on post-investment services
The boom of NFT, GameFi, and DAO proved that ViaBTC Capital was right to set special VC funds. Although it is a new institutional investor, ViaBTC Capital has developed a unique insight into crypto investments, and the crypto categories it invested in echoed with the growth trends of the industry. Such a strong performance is inseparable from its professional investment and research team, which has planned and invested in 12 projects in the trending segments relying on forward-looking insights and well-considered strategies.
In addition to funding, ViaBTC Capital also offers integrated crypto resources for promising projects. The institution conducts early-stage project PR and extensively analyzes the development trend of the relevant category from a professional perspective. ViaBTC Capital continues to empower project teams from a wide range of aspects, spanning industry analysis, market promotion, influence, project resources, referral of institutional investors, project consultation, etc.
Regarding the booming NFT sector, ViaBTC Capital has invested in Pianity and Infinite Launch.
Pianity is a music NFT marketplace that allows musicians and their community to create, sell, buy, and collect limited-edition on-chain music assets. With the help of NFTs, music created by artists could capture more value, and musicians could earn recurring revenue every time their limited music NFTs are traded. Music NFTs could be more promising than visual art NFTs because traditional music platforms are overly centralized. ViaBTC Capital invested in Pianity exactly because it sees the practical value of music NFTs.
Infinite Launch is a cross-chain launchpad platform that provides funding services for games and NFTs. For Infinite Launch, the number of fans, as well as credibility, is essential since it is a launchpad and IDO platform. Other than providing funds, ViaBTC Capital also helped the project team with early-stage market PR and referred the project to over 100 well-known KOLs. The institution also reached out to mainstream media platforms to bring more market exposure to the project and introduced Infinite Launch to project teams that need funding. With the help of professional post-investment services provided by partners such as ViaBTC Capital, Infinite Launch also achieved a terrific performance during its early-stage launch and project promotion.
In terms of early-stage investments, ViaBTC Capital focuses on DeFi, Web3.0, and Layer 2, with investments in a number of projects, covering Qredo, WOO, Arbitrum, Lunarcrush, Hashtagger, Solster, Nabox, etc.
In particular, ViaBTC Capital has been focusing on Arbitrum, a New York-based company building a scaling solution for Ethereum. This much-anticipated Layer 2 project in 2021 represents one of ViaBTC Capital’s key investment targets. The institution believes that as the Layer 2 ecosystem develops an economic model and achieves sustainable growth, the field will present exciting investment opportunities. According to L2BEAT, as of January 13, the TVL of Layer 2 projects has exceeded $5.5 billion, 48.49% ($2.68 billion) of which is contributed by Arbitrum, the scaling solution with the highest TVL.
With regards to DeFi investments, ViaBTC Capital is keeping track of the fundraising platforms on various public chains. For instance, it has invested in a project named Solster. As we usher into an era of multiple public chains, cross-chain swapping has become a growing demand. In this regard, ViaBTC Capital has taken prompt actions and invested in projects such as Qredo, a cross-chain protocol for asset managers, and Nabox, a Web3.0 cross-chain wallet. As for projects focusing on data analysis and social interactions, which are also promising fields, the institution has invested in Lunarcrush, a social media platform for data analysis, and Hashtagger, an SNS platform.
As for investments at a later stage, ViaBTC Capital prefers GameFi and DAO and invested in projects such as AAG, Colony, Moda DAO, etc.
AAG, a tech company committed to building gaming guilds, strives to become a leading P2E and L2E platform. It aims to create a platform that enables seamless interaction between players, guilds, and investors through services, which is a very unique and forward-looking vision that will bring great convenience to cooperation between the three parties. Having noticed the potential market opportunities in AAG relying on its keen insights, ViaBTC Capital has offered early-stage operation advice and continued to provide post-investment support for the project.
Colony, a community-driven accelerator in the Avalanche ecosystem, has been committed to the development of a powerful, flexible, practical, and easy-to-use DAO framework. It aims to build an efficient trust mechanism that allows global users to create distributed online communities and raise project funds. After investing in this project, ViaBTC Capital has introduced mainstream blockchain media platforms, KOLs, as well as potential business & tech partners to Colony. The institution has also analyzed its features from a fair and professional viewpoint, released project reports on Colony, and expanded the project’s influence.
Moda DAO is a decentralized tech network and community. Designed for the metaverse and the play-to-earn era, MODA is dedicated to the adoption of Web3 in the music industry via NFTs, micro-licensing, DAO governance, and DeFi. ViaBTC Capital invested in the project because it is the first DAO application that adopted Optimistic Rollup (a scalability solution and cross-chain technology). The institution believes that Moda DAO may offer a critical reference for building open DAO ecosystems in the future.
Project portfolio: https://capital.viabtc.com/portfolio
Ride crypto trends to usher into an era of new investments
ViaBTC Capital, a young institutional investor, keeps track of quality blockchain projects. In 2022, it will also continue to focus on the investment and development of fields that include Web3 infrastructures, DeFi, NFT, DAO, etc.
When choosing an investment target, in addition to whether a project is backed by sound and innovative theories, ViaBTC Capital will also examine if it could be engineered and implemented, as well as the potential of ecosystem development. In other words, ViaBTC Capital is more willing to invest in blockchain projects with a sound technical and theoretical framework, high feasibility, and an ecosystem that enables sustainable growth over the long run.
ViaBTC Capital’s investment strategies concentrate on long-term considerations. Compared with absolute returns, it cares more about whether a project could create sustainable values. The institution seeks to advance through dedicated efforts while providing excellent post-investment management. It will improve the performance of its portfolio via post-investment appreciation, with a focus on upgrading its institutional capacities. Thanks to these commitments, ViaBTC Capital has expanded its brand influence and gained more market recognition. We are confident that it will grow into a pioneer that leads the future development of blockchain investment.
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