For the crypto community, 2021 was a magical year. It witnessed all kinds of extreme economic events and indicators totally beyond prediction. For ViaBTC Capital, an investment brand under ViaBTC Group, it was also a brand-new starting point: The company was officially founded in October 2021. At the same time, it also set up a $50-million special venture capital (VC) fund, which supports Web3 and layer-two infrastructures, as well as decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFT), and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) applications. 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 funds, such as Pantera Capital, IOSG Ventures and Shima Capital, allowing them to grow stronger with each other while combining efforts to help early-stage blockchain projects grow and gain recognition.
2021: A record-breaking year for the crypto space
According to PitchBook Data, a capital market company, VC funds invested about $30 billion in the crypto space in 2021 — higher than total funding since its inception.
The crypto market realized plenty of new records last year. NFTs representing in-game assets and digital land surged in value. GameFi also reached its peak: Axie Infinity’s 24-hour revenue hit $9.72 million. The realization and breakthrough of Ethereum layer twos further unleashed the potential of decentralized finance, which empowered the development of Web3. ConstitutionDAO raised over $40 million to bid for a rare copy of the United States Constitution, which captured the attention of mainstream media.
Making diversified investments with a focus on post-investment services
The boom of NFTs, GameFi and DAOs 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 in which it has invested have echoed the industry’s growth trends.
In addition to funding, ViaBTC Capital also offers integrated crypto resources for promising projects. The institution conducts public relations (PR) for early-stage projects and analyzes project trends 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 and more.
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 communities to create, sell, buy and collect limited-edition on-chain music assets. ViaBTC Capital’s investment is due to a realization of practical value: Music NFTs could be more promising than visual art NFTs because traditional music platforms are overly centralized.
ViaBTC Capital also helped the Infinite Launch team with early-stage market PR and referred the project to more than 100 well-known key opinion leaders. Infinite Launch achieved a terrific performance during its early-stage launch and project promotion.
In terms of early-stage investments, ViaBTC Capital focuses on DeFi, Web3 and layer two, with investments in a number of projects covering Qredo, Woo Network, Arbitrum, LunarCrush, Hashtagger, Solster and more.
In particular, ViaBTC Capital has been focusing on Arbitrum, a New York-based company building a scaling solution for Ethereum. This much-anticipated layer-two project in 2021 represented one of ViaBTC Capital’s key investment targets. According to L2Beat, as of Jan. 13, the total value locked (TVL) of layer-two projects has exceeded $5.5 billion — 48.49% ($2.68 billion) of which is contributed by Arbitrum, the scaling solution with the highest TVL.
As for investments at a later stage, ViaBTC Capital prefers GameFi and DAOs and has invested in projects such as AAG, Colony, Moda DAO and more.
Project portfolio: https://capital.viabtc.com/portfolio
Ride crypto trends to usher in 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, DAOs and more. ViaBTC Capital is more than willing to invest in blockchain projects with sound technicals 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 it will grow into a pioneer that leads the future development of blockchain investment.