Analysis of institutional investment data and logic in the first half of the year: Prior to large-scale adoption and real bull market layout, the fou

Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author | How to be a husband

2024 is already halfway through, and the crypto industry has taken an epic step forward, from the approval of the Bitcoin ETF spot in the United States at the beginning of the year to the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in Hong Kong. The US Ethereum and Solana spot ETFs are also about to usher in breakthrough progress, marking the official entry of crypto assets into the mainstream financial world.

In the crypto-native market, Bitcoin prices continue to break through historical highs; the meme sector has also swept away the fate of the previous bear market signs and became the gathering place of the wealth effect in the first half of the year; the Bitcoin ecosystem has also developed further last year, and second-layer projects around the Bitcoin mainnet have continued to emerge; the emergence of the new DePIN primitive has brought a new round of heat to the infrastructure sector.

Which projects have attracted the most attention in the primary market in the first half of this year? AI+blockchain is undoubtedly the first. Both AI-driven underlying networks and AI-related tools are sought after by capital. Perhaps when describing the future of Web3, AI has already become one of the most representative features.

As there are major breakthroughs in overall development, what kind of sparks will be ignited in the primary market?

In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will focus on the layout of the institutional primary market and provide you with a detailed overview of the investment of major representative institutions in the first half of 2024 (for a more complete analysis of the amount, please look forward to the upcoming Q2 review). We were also fortunate to interview institutional representatives OKX Ventures, ArkStream Capital, and Foresight Ventures to discuss the current market stage, the investment preferences of each company, and the logic behind it.

Classification of projects invested by institutions

The following figure selects representative Web3 investment institutions, with the number of investments in the first half of the year as the primary dimension. Odaily Planet Daily further divides the invested projects into five major tracks based on their business type, service objects, business model, etc.: infrastructure, applications, technology service providers, financial service providers, and others.

Animoca Brands

Infrastructure: Futureverse, E Money Network, ARPA, Humanity Protocol, Lava Network, Shiba Inu, Berachain, Monad, XION, peag, Myshell, 0 G, PolyHedra, Beoble, io.net, KIP Protocol, Root Protocol, Nubit;

Applications: Redacted, Saltwater, Zeek Network, The Sandbox, GoPlus Security, Stashh, Cookie 3, TRALA, CARV, Kuroro Beasts, OpenSocial, IVX, Pencils Protocol, Aria, Param Labs, Cross The Ages, Baby Shark Universe, Blade Games, Puffverse, Iskra, DARKTIMES, Wild Forest, Puffer Finance, Sharpe Al, Planet Mojo, llluvium, Rollie Finance, eesee, Imaginary Ones, Matr1x, Ultiverse, WELL3, Pixelmon, AOFverse;

Technology service provider: Sapien;

Others: Bondex* 2, Co-Museum;

OKX Ventures

Infrastructure: Merlin Chain, B 2 Network, Zeus Network, 0 G, Sonic, codatta, GoPlus Security, Cysic, Monad, Arch Network, ZKM, Carv, Movement, Lumoz, UTXO stack, Privasea, Camp Network, Sophon, FLock.io, Bitlayer, MyShell, Nubit, Meson Network, DLC.Link, Eclipse, io.net, Taiko, BounceBit, Ether.Fi, Delphinus Lab, Ethena, PolyHedra;

Applications: Zeek Network, UniSat, DEXTools, OpenSocial, Pencils Protocol, BlockBooster, Blade of God X, Bedrock, L3 E 7, Wild Forest, Thruster, Tomo, Cellula, StakeStone, UXLINK, AltLayer, NAVI Protocol, Portal Network, Renzo Protocol;

Technical service provider: 0x scope;

Others: DeBoX, BeWater;

Cogitent Ventures

Infrastructure: TNA, Chakra, NatixNetwork, Tevaera, Zeko, BonusBlock, peag, Bitlayer, Nubit, BEVM, Tanssi Network, Flash Protocol, Ten, Cosmology, Humanity Protocol, Beoble, Entangle;

Applications: XProtocol, Stage, Elys Network, IVX, RunesFi, Zaros, RunesTerminal, xSwap, Crestal, Mitosis, SHADOW WAR, Creator.Bid, MerlinStarter, Master Protocol, Moongate, Satoshi Protocol, GAM 3 S.GG, BitRealms, Metalcore, Silencio, Exverse, Truflation, Lends, Velar, SkyArk Chronicles;

MH Ventures

Infrastructure: Entangle, Particle Network, AgentLayer, Play Al, Parasail, Blockless, Crestal, TNA, Aizel Network, XION, Nubit, BEVM, AlLayer, Morph, io.net, Privasea, Humanity Protocol, Lava Network, Merlin Chain, Analog, OMEGA, Bitlight Labs, Hivello;

Applications: Param Labs, XSwap, Creator.Bid, Avalon, Gull Network, SatoshiSync, Gomble Games, Satoshi Protocol, Openstamp, Blockus, ChronoForge, Imaginary Ones, Velar;

Technical service provider: Lightlink;

Others: Synnax;

Big Brain Holdings

Infrastructure: Entangle, Exabits, Sphere, Initia, Ten, Zeus Network, MegaETH, Sonic, Nubit, Natix Network, Shiba Inu, Mayan, Monad;

Applications: BitFlow, Synonym Finance, Overworld, Watches.io, GLIF, Utila, BitRealms, Planet Mojo, Gomble Games, Parallel, ZKasino, Decent.land, kima Network, Pixelverse, XOCIETY, IVX, Aria, Arch Network, EYWA, Mitosis, L3 E 7, Plena Wallet, Inference Labs, TODAY;

Technical service provider: Safary;

The Spartan Group

Infrastructure: Morph, XION, Zeus Network, Berachain, Merlin Chain, Particle Network, Nubit, Zentry, API 3;

Applications: The Bornless, Pallet Exchange, MetaCene, Metalcore, Karma 3 Labs, Overworld, Pixelmon, Forgotten Playland, Saros Finance, illuvium, Sophon, Parallel, peaq, Alex, Gomble Games, Planet Mojo, Redacted, XOCIETY, Supervillain Labs, Aria, L3 E 7, Puffverse, Wild Forest, UnchartedCentrifuge, Avalon;

Technical service provider: Cookie 3;

Foresight Ventures

Infrastructure: Merlin Chain, Ether.Fi, DePHY, io.net, Humanity Protocol, Morph, XLink, MyShell, Shiba inu, Glacier Network, Avail, Parasail, TheoriqAl, Movement, Avalon, Cellula;

Applications: SoulLand, Pixelmon, PublicAl, Overworid, Oyl, KiloEx, Alex, Gomble Games, Blade Games, L3 E 7, Decent.land, Rango, Pixelverse, Focus Tree, Mitosis, Puffverse;

Financial service provider: Agora;

HashKey Capital

Infrastructure: ORA, Particle Network, GoPlus Security, Avail, Babylon, Cysic, Tevaera, Othentic, Berachain, B 2 Network, Lava Network, Lumoz, Mystiko.Network, PolyHedra, Cosmology, Karma 3 Labs, Humanity Protocol, Delphinus Lab, HackQuest, Beoble, AltLayer, FuzzLand;

Applications: Halo, UXLINK, Bladerite, Puffverse, Aark Digital, Overworld, Lightcycle, bitsCrunch, Fetcch;

Technical service provider: 0x Scope;

GSR

Infrastructure: Lava Network, Ethena, Taiko, Inco Network, Analog, Fhenix, Owito Finance, Monad, Myshell;

Applications: Altitude, The MysterySociety, Kiln, Arcade ARC, Kelp DAO, UXUY, Mitosis, Usual, Puffer Finance, LILLIUS, TODAY, Arrow Markets, Midas, EarlyFanS, Elixir;

Technical service providers: 0x Scope, SoSo Value;

Financial service providers: Cube.Exchange, M^0, D2X, ClearToken;

Others: Ink Finance;

DWF Labs

Infrastructure: Analog, Beoble, DeMR, Lumia, Zentry, API 3, Tevaera, Klaytn, peaq, GraphLing Chain, Flash Protocol, Ten;

Applications: Ultiverse, TokenFi, Prom, Artfi, Yuliverse, Milady, Parasail, Kelp DAO, Shogun, Scallop, Alex, Nebula Revelation, Juice Finance;

Technical service provider: NuLink;

Financial service providers: Double, LazyBear;

Others: DeBox;

Amber Group

Infrastructure: Ethena, io.net, Merlin Chain, Berachain, Babylon, Layer 3, Taiko, Fhenix, ZKM, Monad, Reya Network, AlLayer;

Applications: Ether.Fi, Pixelmon, Kodiak, DappOS, Backpack, Metalcore, Mitosis, Bedrock, Anichess, MerinStarter, Merkle Trade, Parallel;

Technology service providers: 0x Scope, Carbcoin, Tensorplex Labs, Elixir;

Financial service provider: Woo Network;

Cypher Capital

Infrastructure: Humanity Protocol, Hivello, Beoble, Arch Network, Shiba lnu, Berachain, Flash Protocol, XLink;

Applications: Imaginary Ones, Shuffle, ZeroLend, Pixelmon, Velar, bitsCrunch, Kasu, BracketX, Kelp DAO, CARV, Gomble Games, BlockGames, CAM 3 S.GG, Aark Digital, Raiinmaker, Ooga Booga, Juice Finance, Madworld, Pallet Exchange, UXLINK, NFTG, Scallop;

Polychain Capital

Infrastructure: Bitfinity Network, AltLayer, Berachain, Nubit, Babylon, Cysic, Clique, Eclipse, Sahara, Talus, ORA, Botanix, Milkyway, Movement, Ritual, Gasp, PolyHedra;

Applications: Superform, Squid, Drift Protocol, Canza finance, Particle, DappOS, Monkey Tilt, Pac Finance, Shogun, Tomo, Stream Finance, Sofamon;

Coinbase Ventures

Infrastructure: Polymer, WITNESS, Mountain Protocol, Arcium, Turnkey, Othentic, Avalon, Monad, Umoja;

Applications: LogX, Portal Network, Conduit, Farworld, Squads, Neynar, El Dorado, Paragraph, Agora, Puffer Finance, Midas, BOB, Reya Network, Stack;

Binance Labs

Infrastructure: Zircuit, Movement, BounceBit, Privasea, Babylon, Ethena;

Applications: Memeland, BracketX, infrared, Rango, AeVO, Zest Protocol, UXUY, Milkyway, StakeStone, Cellula, Deriwio, QnA3 GPT, NFPrompt, Shogun, Puffer Finance, Renzo Protocol;

SevenX

Infrastructure: ORA, AltLayer, io.net, Particle Network, Avail* 2, REVOX, Azuro, Monad, Karma 3 Labs, Delphinus Lab, Adot;

Applications: ArenaX Labs, L3 E 7, UXLINK, Cellula, Sophon, MetaCene, Renzo* 2;

Technical service provider: Safary;

Others: eesee;

a16z Crypto

Infrastructure: NEBRA, Espresso Systems, Optimism, EigenLayer, Nodekit;

Applications: Neynar, Farcaster, Kiosk, MyPrize, Madworid;

Financial service provider: OpenTrade;

Others: KIki World, Friends with Benefits;

ArkStream Capital

Infrastructure: ARPA, Nubit, BEVM, io.net, Merin chain, Nibiru;

Applications: Kelp DAO, MerinStarter;

Technical service provider: Blockus;

Paradigm

Infrastructure: Conduit, Symbiotic, Babylon, Monad, Succinct, Axiom;

Applications: Farcaster, Phoenix;

LD Capital

Infrastructure: Babylon, DeMR;

Applications: Decent.land, Fetcch, Bored Slot;

Others: Gamic;

Institutional investment logic

In addition to events and data compilation, Odaily Planet Daily also interviewed representatives of some of the institutions covered in the previous article to engage in conversations on the current market conditions, various investment preferences and the logic behind them.

Odaily Planet Daily: What cycle stage is the current Web3 market in?

OKX Ventures: To look at the industry cycle, we need to look at it from the following three perspectives:

1. The industry is beginning to enter the mainstream of society: the growth of the Crypto market size remains at a $2 Trillion scale, and Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have entered the trading range of the global mainstream financial market, which also represents that the Crypto industry is accelerating its integration with the traditional world.

2. Improved entrepreneurial environment: VC capital inflows are increasing. According to statistics, the total amount of investment and financing in Q2 2024 exceeded 3 billion US dollars, a month-on-month increase of 28%. Overall, investment institutions are more active. At the same time, the continuous influx of outstanding entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs with top industry backgrounds and top education backgrounds continue to enter the industry, and continue to contribute fresh blood to the industry.

3. Large-scale user entry. In the past few years, blockchain infrastructure has improved. Ethereum, Layer 2 and high-performance public chains provide a friendly development environment and rich block space. User-side applications such as games, social networking and Telegram ecosystems are allowing more users to enter the Crypto world without any awareness. AI applications, Intent and account abstraction are lowering the learning threshold for users. We are on the eve of a large-scale application explosion and remain optimistic about it in the long term.

ArkStream Capital: We believe that we are currently in the early stages of a bull market , and there will still be a larger wave of growth in this cycle, relying on the monetary easing in the United States.

Foresight Ventures: I think the main uptrend of this round of crypto market bull market has not yet begun . After the Bitcoin spot ETF was approved, Bitcoin has left the crypto market and become a US stock asset. It is difficult for the capital inflow of Bitcoin spot ETF to overflow into the crypto market. But I think with the advent of interest rate cuts and the increase in industry penetration, the market will regain capital inflows starting in the second half of the year.

Odaily Planet Daily: As a primary investor at this stage, how many new projects do you come into contact with every week? Which track or sector do you think is more promising recently and why?

OKX Ventures: The entire team contacts 100 to 200 projects every week. OKX Ventures invests in all tracks, including AI, GameFi, DeFi, Web3, NFT and Metaverse, blockchain underlying infrastructure and other tracks, with a total of more than 300 projects. Among them, the investment amount accounts for: infrastructure (40%), DeFi (20%), games (15%), Web3 (15%), NFT and Metaverse (10%). In this cycle, we focus on three directions:

1. More efficient infrastructure construction: Faster, more efficient, and cheaper infrastructure remains the focus, such as the parallel directions represented by MegaETH and Monad; at the same time, more differentiated infrastructure, such as public chains designed for AI, FHE to solve privacy issues, and more ZK-based infrastructure.

2. Innovative DeFi products: DeFi products have a mature business model and user base. In the future, DeFi will tend to be more multi-chain, decentralized, introduce more RWA assets, introduce more derivatives and be more efficient.

3. Introducing Web2 users: The overall base of Web3 users is still growing rapidly. Compared with web2 industries such as AI, games, social networking and streaming media, the Crytpo industry still has a lot of room for growth. A typical case is AI and Telegram. ChatGPT has captured nearly 200 million users. There is a natural coupling between the AI and Crytpo industries. Telegram has 900 million active users and is one of the 20 most active apps in the world. It has brought 700 million TVL to TON. Ton.app currently has 874 projects. We believe that these applications will introduce more Web2 users to the blockchain industry.

ArkStream Capital: Our investments and research in the first half of the year were concentrated in three sectors: BTC ecology, Ethereum expansion and re-staking track, AI+DePIN track, and we also have layouts in sub-sectors such as FHE, data storage, and chain abstraction.

Foresight Ventures: It is difficult for us to count how many projects we look at every week, but it must be in the dozens. We are currently focusing on AI Crypto, Consumer App, TG Ecosystem and Institutional Platforms.

Odaily Planet Daily: What aspects of the team and product do you value most at the moment?

OKX Ventures:

1. Team innovation and technical capabilities: OKX Ventures emphasizes the evaluation of the teams technical depth and innovation capabilities, and looks for teams that can push the forefront of technology and applications in finance, games, AI, FHE, ZK, and cryptography. The team needs to have a solid technical foundation and innovative thinking.

2. Market potential and uniqueness of the product: The product needs to have a clear market demand and potential user base, and be able to demonstrate its uniqueness and innovation in a highly competitive market. In the current market environment, where competition is highly fierce, products need to not only meet user needs, but also lead the market narrative.

3. Team execution and business growth capabilities: In addition to innovation capabilities, the team must also be able to transform innovative ideas into actual products and successfully bring them to market. OKX Ventures focuses on whether the team can respond quickly to market changes, effectively promote products, and achieve rapid business growth and effective Go-To-Market.

4. Commitment to long-term development and compliance of the industry: Project teams need to continue to pay attention to industry norms and compliance, which is extremely important for maintaining business sustainability in the ever-changing global regulatory environment. OKX Ventures pays more attention to projects and teams that are conducive to the healthy and compliant development of the entire blockchain industry.

In short, OKX Ventures investment strategy places great emphasis on the teams innovative spirit, professional skills, execution, the market potential and differentiated characteristics of the product, and also places great emphasis on the long-term development potential of the project. These factors together constitute OKX Ventures judgment on the team and the product.

ArkStream Capital: We will first do a detailed mapping of the track we are optimistic about, basically covering all the projects in this track. We will select products with disruptive innovation and top-level narratives, consider all aspects of their teams capabilities, including product implementation capabilities, iteration speed, data growth rate, team configuration, marketing and community, etc., and make investments after sufficient competitive product analysis and DD.

Foresight Ventures: The founding team must have the ability to recognize and organize the team, and the product needs to be uniquely innovative.

Disclaimer:

This article is for reference only and represents the views of the author and the interviewee. It is not intended to provide (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold digital assets; (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of such information. The digital assets held (including stablecoins and NFTs) involve high risks and may fluctuate significantly. Readers are advised to carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is appropriate based on their own financial situation, and are solely responsible for understanding and complying with local applicable laws and regulations.