Let’s be honest: crypto is at a crossroads. Obsession with infrastructure investments and token launches has created an imbalance, diverting attention from products that deliver real value to users. Trust has eroded as too many VCs chase short-term gains with unlocks. What’s
(i) Stablecoins are the open source banking as a service layer and will play a pivotal role in the era of blockchain utility. We think they will eventually become a foundational building block for the next generation of Fintech products. And;
What does Stripe need to believe to underwrite Bridge at $1b?
a). Stable (agnostic) <> fiat rails, orchestration, and compliance is too hard to build/hire for.
Or…
b). Something about onchain payments is so disruptive, that the 12 month lead time this buys is priceless.
(ii) Over the next 5 years, blockchain-enabled applications will accrue most of the value on a relative basis due to competition in the underlying infrastructure (L1s/stablecoin issuers).
This is why we joined VanEck, a leading asset manager with a strong track record in pioneering institutional adoption in digital assets, to launch an early stage Venture fund focused on the application layer.
We’ll be sharing more details on our thesis and first few investments soon.
If you are a founder thinking about the next generation of B2B payments, tokenized assets & markets, and on-boarding the next wave of consumers and institutions on-chain, we'd love to chat. 📥
Back in 2021, I met @wyattlonergan while at @circle.
It became clear that aligning with the USDC ecosystem was gonna be a major differentiator for us long term. @jerallaire took a bet on us to help launch @Circle_Ventures.
Confidential payments remains as one of the key building blocks to bridge traditional commerce onchain. Excited to see more research in this category via @inconetwork and @circle
Introducing the Confidential ERC-20 Framework
@inconetwork and Circle Research release a new whitepaper and open-source repo on transforming ERC-20 tokens into confidential wrapped versions that preserve user privacy using fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) while maintaining
1/ Superform has raised $3M led by @vaneck_us Ventures to launch SuperVaults: Intelligent Onchain Yield Products
The first SuperVault, SuperUSDC is now live, earning 22% APY: superform.xyz