David’s Takeaways from Asia

Our Founder & General Partner, David Gan, has been travelling in Asia since mid-December. In this article, he shares some of his insight and observations on the current Web3 Landscape in the APAC region:

“As many of you may know, I am very bullish on China and a greater Asian market as a whole. From a fund perspective, we are spending much more effort here to consolidate and attract some of the best deal flow and establish a strong presence within the region. I’ve actually been traveling in Asia since mid-December for this exact purpose and anticipate staying for another couple of months. From a hiring standpoint, we have several open positions within the APAC region and are actively onboarding a few key members to be boots on the ground. Please feel free to share any of these postings in case you may know anyone interested in applying — OP Crypto APAC Careers.

One key takeaway that I’ve noticed is that there was fortunately not a lot of exposure to FTX within the APAC region, as the vast majority of users typically held funds on other exchanges. Additionally, the China lockdown has actually kept a substantial amount of retail and institutional capital from participating in investments over the last couple of years. Now that the country is opening up again, there are significant pockets of capital looking to deploy opportunistically both in the secondary and primary markets within the blockchain ecosystem.

Another major catalyst for continued interest within the sector is due to China effectively shutting down web 2.0 with excessive governmental regulation as evidenced by the steep decline in those respective stocks. In response, institutional capital from large web 2.0 VCs within the APAC region including my former employer, Qiming Venture Partners, are pivoting focus to exploring web 3.0 deals. I anticipate more VCs transition to deploying into web 3.0 deals going forward, unlocking a new tranche of capital that previously was nonexistent.

Lastly, elite developer talent is on the rise with Zhejiang University leading the way in terms of curriculum and career opportunities. Other organizations like GuildFi in Thailand and Alpha Venture DAO are building platforms conductive for further adoption from developers and founders within the APAC region.

Ultimately I am impressed with the progression of the space. While there is still significant room to grow, several of the key points I’ve mentioned above make me very excited for what’s to come. I’ll be traveling to Vietnam next month to further explore synergies and opportunities there, and look forward to sharing my insights with you in the future.”

ABOUT OP CRYPTO

OP Crypto is a leading high conviction, early-stage venture capital firm in the crypto and blockchain industry, specializing in pre-seed and seed stage investments. The fund successfully raised $50M in September 2021 and has since invested in over 30 projects, including companies such as Scroll Tech, Snackclub, Merit Circle, Omni, and Fyde.

With the support of prominent investors like Bill Ackman and Alan Howard, as well as institutions like Galaxy Digital, Huobi, and DCG, OP Crypto has access to a global network of venture funds, scouts, and ecosystem partners to source the most competitive deals in the market.

With a core team based in the United States and strong ties to the APAC region, the fund serves as a bridge between East and West. Additionally, a dedicated portfolio team provides post-investment support to founders in areas such as marketing, tokenomics, and networking.

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