Hong Kong crypto VC opens $100M fund for Asian blockchain startups

by Jeremy

Hong Kong-based crypto-focused enterprise capital agency CMCC World has raised $100 million geared toward supporting Asian blockchain startups. 

The crypto fund, known as Titan Fund, closed its inaugural funding spherical on Oct. 4 having seen participation from 30 buyers together with blockchain firm Block.one, Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group, Winklevoss Capital, Jebsen Capital and Animoca Manufacturers founder Yat Siu, the South China Morning Publish reported.

Titan Fund will think about investments in three key areas particularly blockchain infrastructure, shopper purposes like gaming and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and monetary companies together with exchanges, wallets, and platforms for lending and borrowing.

The crypto fund from CMCC World might be its fourth to supply fairness investments to early-stage blockchain start-ups with Hong Kong in focus. The fund has already made 5 funding rounds, with two of those investments going towards Hong Kong-based startups.

The 2 Hong Kong startups embrace Mocaverse, an NFT mission launched in December 2022 by Hong Kong blockchain agency Animoca Manufacturers that raised US$20 million in September. Earlier than that, in August, the Titan fund participated within the pre-seed funding spherical for Terminal 3, a Hong Kong-based Web3 knowledge infrastructure start-up.

The $100 million crypto enterprise fund comes amid the drought of crypto funding associated to the bear market and FTX collapse. In accordance with knowledge from Pitchbook, the worth of world enterprise capital investments in crypto corporations declined by 70.9% year-on-year, whereas the variety of offers fell by 55%. That is in stark distinction to the bull market when crypto-based startups raised hundreds of thousands and the crypto ecosystem noticed a brand new unicorn each different month.

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The crypto VC fund launch in Hong Kong additionally signifies the town’s rising prominence as a protected crypto harbor. Titan Fund managing director Yen Shiau Sin stated {that a} crackdown on crypto within the U.S. signifies that Asian corporations are beneficiaries, as “initiatives are pondering of coming right here speaking to us”.

Hong Kong introduced a shift in its crypto coverage in October final 12 months, with the federal government making it clear they might give attention to constructing regulation to encourage Web3. The regulators doubled down on the coverage shift and formulated pro-crypto rules making approach for regulated crypto exchanges and even opening up companies to retail clients.

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