Deciphering the Different Chinese-Language Crypto Market: Real User Research, Chinese-Language VC Inventory
Chinese-speaking users are just migrating; they haven't really disappeared.
Do you know the real Chinese-language crypto market?
When the Chinese Coin and the Hong Kong concept came to the forefront, the Chinese-speaking market undoubtedly once again attracted widespread attention. Once upon a time, the agencies/projects that were still hesitant about whether to expand the Chinese-speaking market have also seen the strength of the Chinese language market not to be underestimated in the recent impact of the Hong Kong concept.
Compared to scattered analysis and second-hand information, we have direct communication with many partners, and based on TechFlow's long-term deep cultivation and insight in the Chinese-speaking market, we present comprehensive and interesting report content from the perspective of the market environment, user portraits, VC and communication, and uncover unknown insider information.
Whether you are an organization, project party, or individual, I hope this section of the report will help you quickly establish your understanding of the Chinese-language crypto market and help you expand your ecosystem. Thanks to Min L, co-author of this issue, market strategy director for the top ten global exchanges, ten years of experience in the global market, and co-founder of FAB DAO.
* This article is an excerpt from the Chinese-language market section of the “Asia Pacific Web3 Truth” report produced by TechFlow.
I. Overview of the Chinese-language crypto market
The largest in the Asia-Pacific market is the Chinese-speaking market. Its definition generally refers to all places with Chinese people, such as mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. According to the Financial Investment Network survey report, in addition to China, the 6 countries with the most Chinese are:
Indonesia, Number of Chinese: Over 10 million
Thailand, Number of Chinese: Approx. 10 million
Malaysia, Number of Chinese: 7.4 million
US, Number of Chinese: 5.08 million
Singapore, Number of Chinese: 2.98 million
Canada, Number of Chinese: 1.77 million
Different encryption policies in various regions have also brought about different profiles of cryptographic users.
In September 2017, the People's Bank of China and other regulators announced a ban on ICOs and a notice to close cryptocurrency exchanges. In May 2021, the relevant regulators issued another notice to crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading. At this point, exchanges, project parties, miners, and users have all begun to go overseas.
But Chinese-speaking users are only migrating; they haven't actually disappeared.
According to Triple A's data estimates, the global cryptocurrency ownership rate will average 4.2% by 2023 (including non-on-chain users).
Among them, if only the Chinese-speaking regions are calculated: Mainland China 19.9 million, Hong Kong 0.18 million, Singapore 0.64 million, and Taiwan 0.54 million, the number of crypto users is 21.26 million.
However, if this data includes the proportion of Chinese people in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the US, and Canada, it can be roughly calculated that the number of users that can radiate Chinese-language content is at least 23.57 million. (The calculation formula is encrypted users in the region* (Chinese-speaking users in the region/total number of users in the region))
The concept we have always emphasized is the Chinese-speaking market, not the mainland China market. In addition to mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, North America, and Europe still have a large number of Chinese people, and this group also has strong purchasing power.
For any aspiring entrepreneur, you can say that you don't pay attention to the Chinese market due to policy or other reasons, but you can't ignore the Chinese market.
Hong Kong is a bridgehead connecting the global Chinese market. At the same time, Taiwan is also a place we need to pay great attention to. Even if many projects want to enter the Chinese-speaking market, they will first use the Taiwanese market as a testing ground.
Taiwan has decades of infrastructure and stable economic development, and an industrial structure with many small and medium-sized enterprises, which enabled the Taiwanese market to move towards a well-off and well-off society in the 1960s. Most post-80s Taiwanese have not experienced a life of “suffering to the point where they have nothing to eat.” Compared to the widening gap in the mainland economy and the rigidity of social classes in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, the average salary of Taiwanese can at least meet basic needs. Therefore, Taiwanese users are more likely to “continue to accumulate assets” rather than become rich all at once.
Therefore, long-term projects (such as loans, regular investment and financial management,DeFiStrategies) and easy-to-understand trading products (such as grid trading and copy trading) will be more popular among Taiwanese users because they can steadily accumulate assets.
November 14, 2022,FTXThe incident broke out, and the world's second-largest exchange went out of business. According to official confirmation, Taiwan is the fifth most affected region, which also indirectly represents the activity and importance of Taiwanese users in the crypto trading market. Although Taiwan's economic growth has not been rapid in recent years, the steady economic and social environment has made Taiwanese users more emboldened to seek new wealth opportunities.
However, the Taiwanese market has always been in a grey area, and regulation has not been able to introduce effective policies for many years. After the FTX incident broke out, several Taiwanese cryptocurrency asset management companies were also implicated, yet the government was only able to detain and not be able to sentence them, showing that the regulatory laws were not enforceable. Because of this, the Taiwanese market has become a must-compete place for many traders who are eager to try it out.
II. User Portraits and Investment Habits
We surveyed more than 1000 users in multiple Chinese-speaking communities and came up with the results of this analysis.
1- Overall, Chinese-speaking users invested up to 39.3% of the 10k to 100k USD in the crypto market, followed by 100k to 500k USD with 22.5%.
2- Defi, Infra, and NFT each rank in the top three segments that Chinese users are concerned about. Among the public chain's attention, Etherum,Arbitrum、BNB ChainRanked in the top three.
3- In the catalytic habits of Chinese-speaking users, it is already showing more and more internationalization. As the primary channel for information acquisition, Twitter accounts for 85.4%, followed by WeChat 65.2% and Media 61.2%. Most Chinese-speaking media also run their own Twitter accounts.
4- On the exchange side, Binance and OKX currently have a clear leading edge in the Chinese-speaking market. This is followed by Bitget\ Gate\ Huobi, etc. It is worth mentioning that the current leading exchanges Binance, OKX, Bitget, Huobi, Kucoin, Gate, Bybit, and MEXC are all founded by Chinese.
5- The crypto market is relatively new. Judging from the length of time users have known the crypto market, the maximum number of users in 1-3 years was 41%, followed by 3-5 years accounting for 28.1%.
So from a comprehensive perspective, although the perception of the crypto market among Chinese users is relatively early, starting from the amount of investment, it can show the enthusiasm of Chinese speaking users for the crypto market. At the same time, in the catalytic habits of users, due to some policy reasons, it is an irreversible trend for users to rely more and more on international channels, especially for Twitter, but if localization is needed, the media and WeChat are still important operating positions.
Furthermore, the user habits in the Taiwan and Hong Kong markets are also unique to the local community. In terms of exchanges, in addition to using common offshore exchanges such as Binance and OKX, the three major exchanges in Taiwan are MAICOIN, ACE, and Bitcoin. In addition, BingX also has a large number of Taiwanese users and a high degree of localization. The Hong Kong local exchanges are mainly HKD and Kikitrade.
The main social networking apps used in Taiwan are LINE, Instagram, and Facebook, while Hong Kong mostly uses WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Whether in mainland China, Hong Kong, or elsewhere, Chinese crypto investors now commonly use Twitter and Telegram to obtain and exchange industry information.
3. Mainstream media and KOLs
The media is one of the main channels for users to obtain information, and content is also the first stop for most people to enter the WEB3 world. An article, a podcast, and a video may cause a traditional WEB2 user to develop interest in the crypto market.
In other words, good content can also bring good exposure to the project and long-term accumulation of content. According to estimates, the total number of Chinese-language encrypted media is over 100, and choosing a media with high traffic, a positive brand, and unique characteristics can really bring communication effects to your project. Based on research, we have sorted out some mainstream media in the Chinese-speaking market for reference.
Chinese-speaking media
In a sense, the Chinese-speaking market has no “media” in the true sense of the word. It is more of a PR agency with a media cloak. At the same time, content is becoming more homogenous, high-quality original content is becoming scarce. Most of it is being transported and translated with each other, and has become a propaganda machine for project parties and exchanges. However, compared to the internal volume content environment, various media outlets also began to try to explore their own characteristics and directions.
Wu said that he maintains classical journalism, often reports exclusive news, and has the strongest influence overseas;
Chain Catcher collaborates with its investment fund Cather VC to produce project investment and research;
Foresight News continues to explore activities and tools;
Panews has a more global marketing layout;
Vibrate and Planet maintain the lead in dynamic updates of news updates, and have a long history of user and traffic accumulation;
TechFlow Shenchao is dedicated to producing original in-depth articles. One is in-depth research and analysis, and the other is to express subjective feelings and opinions...
In the traditional Chinese market, Blocktempo and Chain News are high-traffic and influential crypto media in Taiwan, and Matters has stronger community attributes.
Chinese KOL and community
In terms of community and KOL, for the Chinese language, WeChat, Weibo, and Bilibili were previously important sources of information for encrypted users. However, due to censorship policies, the main sources of information for Chinese-speaking users are also gradually based on international channels, such as Twitter and Youtube. Many communities and KOLs that used to be on channels such as WeChat and Weibo are also gradually migrating to international channels, so we are mainly taking stock of Chinese-language KOLs and communities on Twitter and YouTube.
Since the screening rules and opinions on KOLs are too subjective, we have sorted out the content of several major third party individuals to be as objective and comprehensive as possible, hoping to be helpful to you.
Chinese Twitter Influencers 150+
Chinese-area TwitterList Collection
A list of quality bloggers with relatively few followers
Chinese Youtube Influencers 80+
List of Chinese-speaking YouTubers
Recommended Chinese-speaking YouTube bloggers
As far as the Taiwanese market is concerned, there are also quite a few localized KOL/ communities. The famous one is Mr. Block, but there is also a lot of controversy in Taiwan; trader Woody; Benson, who stopped updating community news after the FTX thunderstorm; Brain Brother Chill Blockchain, and Daily Numismatic Research Alvin. The Degen/ trading category includes the 2140 crypto community, Dugo 777 channel, and the comprehensive category includes Xu Mingen/Blockchain, Terence, etc. Of course, Little Raccoon from Hong Kong /Buji DAO is also very famous.
IV. Introduction to Asia-Pacific Background Encryption VCCryptographic VC
Among Asia-Pacific crypto VCs, whether in terms of quantity or overall strength, Chinese crypto VCs dominate, but just like those made in China in the past, Chinese crypto VCs also have the dilemma of being numerous but not strong, and lacking in voice.
What is often questioned about many VCs is that most of them lack their own investment methodology, prefer to follow suit, and expect to be able to hold onto the legs of some large Western funds. As a result, the FOMO bull market casts a wide net, and the bear market has become the norm. Finally, it is difficult for overall net worth growth to outperform ETH within a cycle.
After entering the second half of 2022, one trend is that many Chinese-language crypto VCs have begun to reduce their investment in Tier 1 projects. First, they have switched to developing Tier 2 investments to raise funds in the secondary market; the second is that VCs are starting more de-incubating projects. Various types of accelerators, incubators, and Demo Days are constantly emerging, shifting from level 1 to internal incubation volumes during the bull market.
This article will take stock of the various types of Crypto Funds that are active or have been active in the Chinese-speaking market.
HashKey Capital
HashKey Capital is part of the HashKey Group, an Asian asset manager focused on investing in blockchain technology and digital assets, and an early investor in Ethereum. It is currently the most active Web3 investment institution in Asia, investing in more than 200 projects across 17 countries and regions. HashKey Capital has strong Asian resource advantages and relatively strong fund-raising capabilities. It is the only Chinese crypto VC supported by Temasek, an investment fund of the Singapore Government. HashKey has a long-term presence in Hong Kong, gradually moving from the early Cyberport to Central. HashKey Group obtained a license from the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission to operate a virtual asset trading platform.
Portfolio: Animoca Brands, Cosmos, Polkadot,DYDX，IoTeX，Alchemy，Celestia，1inchNetwork, Mask Network, Evomos,Terra, Harmony, Alliance,Mina，Galxe，Stacks, iZUMi Finance,Cobo, RSS3,Moonbeam, Radicle,Multichain，Pendle, Coinlist,DeBank，Decrypt，The Block, Foresight News, Secret Network...
Official website:https://capital.hashkey.com/en/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/HashKey_Capital
Fenbushi
Fenbushi Capital was founded at the end of 2015. It is the first venture capital company in China to focus on investing in blockchain technology-related enterprises, and is also an early investor in Ethereum.EthereumoriginatorsVitalik ButerinHe is an advisor to Fenbushi Capital. Fenbushi Capital has invested in a number of important infrastructure and applications in the Ethereum ecosystem, such asKyber Network、MakerDAO, Arbitrum, etc. December 2022,Amber GroupAnnouncing the completion of the $300 million Series C round, led by Fenbushi Capital US, Fenbushi Capital now has an important influence on Amber Group, and the two have jointly launched and operated a Gamma fund.
Portfolio: Amber Group,Messari，Offchain Labs, fuel,Circle, Mina,The Graph, 1inch Network, Stacks,Balancer, Moonbeam, iZumi Finance, Oasys,Astar Network, Forkast, Coinlist, ChainFeeds, Consensys, DeBank,Dfinity, Flow, NYM,Biconomy, Radicle,WOO Network, MathWallet, BlockSec...
Official website:https://fenbushi.vc/index_cn.html
Twitter:https://twitter.com/fenbushi
SNZ Holding
SNZ Holding is a crypto fund made up of a group of engineers, blockchain promoters, and entrepreneurs. They share the same belief in blockchain technology, and envision blockchain as a way to restore the original spirit of the Internet and build a better future by protecting privacy, verifying information, distributed supercomputing, and digital assets. Additionally, SNZ Holding provides professional PoS mining pool services. Portfolio: Animoca Brands, Arbitrum, Dfinity,Avalanche, Stacks, Mina,Manta Network, Mask Network,Solv Protocol, Astar Network,NFTScan...
Official website:https://snzholding.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/snzholding
Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is a Web3 gaming software company and venture capital company founded by Yat Siu in 2014. Animoca Brands, on the one hand, continues to expand its footprint through acquisitions, and has many subsidiaries, including The Sandbox,Blowfish Studios、Quidd、GAMEEetc. Second, Animoca Brands invested heavily in Tier 1 projects in 2021/2022, with a cumulative total of more than 400 projects. Today, Animoca Brands ranks among the unicorns and is Cyberport's brightest business card, but it's surprising that Yat Siu doesn't speak Cantonese very well.
Portfolios:Ledger，Yuga Labs，OpenSea，Kraken，LayerZero，Yield Guild Games，Axie Infinity, Consensys, Immutable,Polygon，WAX，CyberConnect，Mask Network，MOBOX，The Sandbox，Flow，Harmony, Hishstreet, Forkast...
Official website:https://www.animocabrands.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/animocabrands
Seven X
Established in 2020, SevenX Ventures is a rapidly growing, up-and-coming crypto investment fund in Asia. Its three founding partners and team are veterans with more than 5 years of experience in the industry. In terms of investment style, SevenX Ventures advocates “immersive investment”. In addition to financial support, it also empowers the invested projects in all aspects of financing planning, product design, economic models, marketing, etc., and has a loud slogan - Empowering Startups in Crypto & Web3.
Portfolio: Near Protocol, Oasis Foundation,Arweave, Cyberconnct, RSS3, Bitget Wallet, DeBank, BitKeep,DAO Maker, Yield Guild Games, Mask Network, ChainFeeds,SubDAO, WOO Network,subquery，DODO，Footprint Analytics...
Official website:https://7xvc.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/SevenXVentures
A&T Capital
A&T CapitalEstablished in 2021, it is an early-stage to long-term risk fund with emerging disruptive technologies. It received financial support from Ant Group, a top Chinese fintech company. The first phase of the fund raised 100 million US dollars. Thanks to its financial strength, A&T Capital participated in investing in many well-known projects, such as ConsenSys, Sui, Celestia, etc. Due to the scandal of the former founding partner, A&T Capital has entered a completely low-key phase: deleting content from Twitter, canceling the official account, and emptying all content on the official website... But I have to say that A&T Capital's portfolio is very “strong”, even though many participants are highly valued. Furthermore, A&T Capital has recruited a group of outstanding talents and produced a lot of high-quality content, so one person cannot erase the efforts of a team.
Portfolio: Amber Group,Sui, Celestia, Consensys, Cobo,scroll，Orbiter Finance, Gnosis Safe, Debank,bitKeep，blockSec, ChainFeeds, Footprint Analytics...
Official website:https://a-tcapital.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/AT_Capital2021
Foresight Ventures
Foresight VenturesEstablished in 2021, it has received financial support from the exchange Bitget. The total assets of multiple funds have exceeded 400 million US dollars. It hopes to provide comprehensive support for the project through the “power of ecology”. Its ecosystem mainly includes the exchange Bitget, the wallet Bitkeep, the Chinese crypto media Foresight News, and the incubator Foresight X. Thanks to the collaboration between Foresight Ventures and Foresight News in terms of brands and activities, the overall Foresight brand has gained momentum, and the ecological combination boxing method has been very effective, and it is a rising star in Asian crypto VC.
Portfolios:SPACE ID，Matrixport, Bitkeep, Foresight News,Shardeum, RSS3, Polyhedra,Xterio,Zebec，Space and time...
Official website:https://www.foresightventures.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ForesightVen
Dragonfly
Dragonfly was founded in 2018 with the participation of Feng Bo, founder of Ceyuan Venture Capital, and the other managing partner is a professional poker playerHaseeb Qureshi. It has the strongest fund-raising capacity in the Chinese-speaking world, and has received long-term support from Sequoia China, the founder/executive family office of a major Internet technology company, and investment from Temasek, a Singaporean government fund.
Dragonfly Capital mainly focuses on three investment directions: investing in new cryptoasset management funds as parent funds; investing in protocols and applications that may become the foundation of a decentralized economy; and supporting technology startups that can connect to the decentralized and centralized world.
The Dragonfly Fund hopes to become a bridge between the East and West cryptocurrency industries, help Asian projects and investors obtain technology developed by the West, and also help Western blockchain projects reach the Asian cryptocurrency market. Just like the slogan on Dragonfly's official website, “Globalize from day one.”
Dragonfly has also been involved in disputes over Portfolio Paypal Finance and Amber. Overall, Dragonfly is the fund with the most successful implementation of “Chinese LP+ Overseas GP”, which has truly placed the brand among the world's top crypto VCs.
Portfolios:zkSync, Animoca Brands,Lido, Avalanche,BitDAO, MakerDAO, Amber Group,Aptos，Babel Finance, Near Protocol, Mina, Consensys, Polygon,Dune Analytics, dYdX,Celo, Cosmos,Flashbots，Bybit，OneKey, RSS3, 1inch Network,Hashflow, SHRAPNEL, DEBANK,element, Bitget Wallet,Ribbon Finance，UMA，Axelar...
Official website:https://www.dragonfly.xyz/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/dragonfly_xyz
Old Fashion Research (OFR)
Old Fashion is a cocktail and a multi-strategy blockchain investment fund. Team members were founded in July 2021 by former Binance executives and the investment team. Founding partners include Ling Zhang, former vice president of strategic investment M&A at Binance, Wayne Fu, former head of corporate development, and Xin Jiang, former Binance Labs investment director and head of Launchpad. In addition to investing, OFR has also incubated numerous crypto projects and laid out markets in South America and Africa. In February 2023, an investor consortium led by Old Fashion Research (OFR) acquired the anime NFT series 0N1 Force.
Portfolios:Nansen, Mexc Global, Pudgy Penguins, WOO Network,ZetaChain，Boba Network，Rebase，Genopets，Blocto…
Official website:https://www.ofr.asia/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ofrfund
NGC Ventures
NGC, the full name of NEO Global Capital, was founded at the end of 2017. It had a close relationship with NEO in the early days, and later became more independent. It has a deep understanding of the crypto investment and financing cycle. At the same time, the team members are Degen, and at the same time, their individuals also participate in the deep incubation and construction of the project. It is a crypto fund relative to Crypto Native.
Portfolio: Avalanche, BitDAO,Solana, Polkadot,Render, Kucoin, Babel Finance,Highstreet，ConsenSys, NYM, MultiVerseX,Algorand, Oasys,Ankr，Oasis Network，Zilliqa, Ontology...
Official website:https://ngc.fund/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ngc_ventures
OP Crypto
OP Crypto is an emerging crypto fund founded by former Huobi executive David Gan. Its official website emphasizes that it is a digital asset VC with local ties to the Eastern and Western markets. Its LPs are mainly Huobi, Bybit, Animoca, DCG, Republic, etc. OP Crypto was an early major investor in Scroll, a well-known Ethereum scaling Layer2 project.
Portfolio: Scroll, Particle Network,Merit Circle, nftperp,Aurory，Ethos，Connext，Astra Protocol，Stardust…
Official website:https://www.opcrypto.vc/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/OPCryptoVC
Bixin Ventures
Bixin Ventures is part of Bixin Group, one of Asia's largest crypto wallets with over 1 million registered users, and its founding members areBitcoinAn early adopter and promoter of its ecosystem. Bixin Ventures has its own technical accumulation and expertise in the MOVE language, and is an investor in Aptos and Sui.
Portfolio: Arweave, LayerZero, Aptos, Sui,Sei Network，eigenLayer, Mina, Algorand, iZumi Finance, Pendle, Bitget Wallet, SHRAPNEL,Ondo Finance, nftperp, ethos...
Official website:https://bixinvc.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/bixinventures?lang=en
ABCDE Capital
Established in 2022, ABCDE is a $400 million Web3 fund co-founded by Huobi co-founder Du Jun and Metropolis Capital founder BMAN. In terms of investment style, ABCDE is more inclined to take the lead in projects. Currently, close to 80% of the projects it invests in are led by ABCDE.
Portfolio: PolyHedra, Debox, 0xScope, NFEX, Cysic, Elven, MetaTrust, Cointime, Particle Network, CoinCatch...
Official website:https://www.abcde.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ABCDECapital
Hash Global
Established in 2019, Hash Global is a Web 3 venture capital firm focusing on global Chinese teams and projects. It focuses on investing in two areas: 1) a global team of Chinese founders; 2) early blockchain projects that promote the integration of Web2 and Web3. Currently, Hash Global has invested in more than 50 projects, covering 7 tracks, and has an asset management scale of over 300 million US dollars. It has extensive cooperation and ties with Liang Xinjun, one of the founders of Fosun Group, a well-known Chinese entrepreneur.
Portfolio: Mask Network, DeBank, RSS3,RCT AI，PlatON，NFTGo, Space and Time, SeedAO, ChainFeeds, 0xScope,DAOsquare，tokenScript...
Official website:https://www.hashglobal.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/HashGlobal
RedlineDAO
Redline DAOIt is an Asian crypto investment agency that provides early teams with a full range of one-stop services including incubation, investment and financing, operation, marketing, media promotion, exchange relationships, and liquidity management. Redline Capital (Redline Capital) is a blockchain fund focusing on early projects in blockchain and other industries. It has invested in more than 100 blockchain projects, and has a background in market makers and quantitative trading.
Portfolios:Conflux, Mask Network, Fantom,Celer Network, Mina, DODO, Algorand,Filecoin, Dfinity, IOST,Aura Network, Boba Network, WOO Network...
Official website:https://redlinedao.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/RedlineDAO
Web3.com Ventures
Web3.com Ventures is Quantum Chain Shuichu's Family Office. It has not only participated in many first-level projects, but is also Hashkey Capital\ Aninmoca's LP.
Portfolio: RCT AI, MetaOASIS, Cysic, Era7, Delphinus Lab,Relation, Prodia, Amethyst,Cassava Network...
Official website: ventures.web3.com
Twitter:https://twitter.com/Web3com_VC
Arcane Group
Arcane GroupHeadquartered in Singapore, it is a global multi-stage venture capital firm that invests in the next generation of entrepreneurs in the Web3 era. It is also a Family Office with a management scale of $500 million. Arcane is dedicated to finding pioneers, harnessing the power of blockchain technology to revolutionize existing systems and structures, and create solutions that make the industry a better place.
Portfolio: Animoca Brands, Discord, Yuga Labs, Consensys, Foresight Ventures, Particle Network,Polyhedra Network, NEST, Gameta, Outland...
Official website:https://www.arcanegroup.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ArcaneGrp
Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC)
Infinity Ventures CryptoIt is a crypto fund with resource backgrounds in Japan, Taiwan, and mainland China. Born from a close relationship with Headline Asia (formerly Infinity Ventures), in February 2022, IVC announced the completion of a $70 million fundraising. Circle,Digital Currency Groupand Animoca Brands participated in the fund's investments.
Portfolio: Yield Guild Games, Thala, Oasys, Scroll, Delysium, Zebec Protocol, RSS3, HighStreet, Xterio,OP Games，Web3Go...
Official website:https://www.ivcrypto.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ivcryptofund
IOSG
IOSG, a research and paper-driven crypto venture capital agency, invests in four major theories: 1. An ambitious and resilient team and founders; 2. A pioneering project that adds value to the entire Web3.0 ecosystem; 3. Excellent operation and delivery capabilities; 4. Focus on building a strong community with a large number of users; IOSG focuses on brand building, and regularly hosts events IOSG Old Friends Reunion to connect investors and entrepreneurs from East and West.
Portfolio: zkSync, Consensys, IoTeX, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Polkadot,NEAR Protocol, MakerDAO, EigenLayer, Stacks, Cosmos, Celer Network, Vechain, Filecoin,Synthetix, Conflux, Starkware, Celestia, Mina, Gnosis Safe, Mask Network, 1inch Network, Scroll, Treasure Dao,Illuvium，0x, OneKey, UMA, Bigtime, Astar Network, Galxe, Decrypt, CyberConnect,Liquity, iZUMi Finance,Aavegotchi，Centrifuge, Moonbeam, DODO, Oasis Network, Ocean Network, Ontology, Footprint Analytics,Aztec Network…
Official website:https://iosg.vc/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/IOSGVC
DFG
Digital Finance Group(DFG) was first established in 2015. Currently, the asset management scale exceeds 1 billion US dollars, and it is an investment of own funds. Currently, DFG manages three strategic special funds: venture equity funds; Boca ecosystem funds; and crypto funds. In 2021, DFG sold its holding company LedgerX to FTX. In terms of investment style, DFG tends to take heavy positions in specific crypto assets at the first and second levels. It was once a core supporter of ETC, and later became the main holder and supporter of Boca. DFG also has a brother fund, Jsquare, which is driven by investment research and technology, with its own assets under management of over $150 million.
Portfolio: Ledger, Circle,CoinList, Ava Labs, Solana, Amber Group,Big time, Render, Dao Maker,Metis, Shradeum, Astar Network, OP Fames...
Official website:https://www.dfg.group/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/DFG_OfficiaI
LD Capital
Established in 2016, LD Capital has invested in more than 300 companies with its own capital, covering tier 1 and 2 investments, FOF, etc., with assets under management of 1 billion US dollars. LD Capital emphasizes providing multi-dimensional post-investment services to invested projects, including talent recruitment, economic model design, ecological cooperation, technology development, community and media relationships, financing, etc., and is willing to be the first investor in the project, giving the founders confidence and support during the most difficult times. In Asia, LD Capital is considered a representative of extensive investment, but according to the founder's disclosure, in the future, LD Capital will select projects more strictly and focus on them to provide projects with better quality and focused post-investment services to help them grow. Entering 2023, LD Capital will focus on investing in the secondary market.
Portfolio: Flow, Mina, Assembly, CoinList, Certik, Near Protocol, Illuvium, Big Time, Render Network, Ankr, Celer Network, MEXC, NYM,Flare Network, Algorand,StarryLift, DAO Maker, Boba Network, SubDAO, DAOSquare,Star Atlas，Alien Worlds…
Official website:https://ldcap.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ld_capital
Incurable Labs
Incurable LabsEstablished in 2016, Fundamental Labs emphasizes fundamental analysis and investment, focusing on dimensions such as on-chain metrics, financial metrics, team technical background, and community health. The amount of a single investment ranges from $500,000 to $50 million, covering all aspects of the project's development cycle. In addition to the investment business, Cultivating Labs parent company CTH also includes digital asset management company IDEG and WEB3 infrastructure solutions provider Atlas. Incurable Labs has a close relationship with Belle Group in Hong Kong.
Portfolio: Avalanche,Coinbase, Cannan, Polkadot, Conflux, Kyber Network, Stacks, Filecoin,Decentraland, RSS3, Mask Network,SingularityNET，Loopring, Golem, Vechain, Binance.US,Blockstack, NEAR Protocol, Certik...
Official website:https://www.cth.group/what_we_do/fundamental_labs/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/fundamentallabs
Folius Ventures
Folius Ventures was founded in 2020. Founder Jason @MapleLeafCap is a well-known WEB3 influencer (KOL) on Twitter. He is a Chinese who has been working on Wall Street for a long time. He is familiar with the rules of the Eastern and Western capital game, not only has a global perspective, but also understands Oriental entrepreneurs better. This makes Folius Ventures a bridge between the West and the East. Folius' slogan is “We love APAC founders (We love APAC founders)”. Folius Ventures can support the project in the following areas: (1) in-depth research content to allow project parties to receive more coverage and recognition (2) business support, such as token model design, IR, development, business growth (3) endorsing the project brand, and introducing more core investors in current and subsequent rounds. A number of entrepreneurs said that Jason's advantage is that he is good at “non-consensus” investments , especially the secondary market; secondly, he likes to invest in proven entrepreneurs who have already been proven.
Portfolio: NEAR Protocol,STEPN, Nansen, ConsenSys, Scroll, Galxe, Debank, Onekey, Ethsign,Jambo, Cyberconnect, Solv Protocol...
Official website:https://www.folius.ventures/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/FoliusVentures
EVG
EVG is a crypto fund founded in Hong Kong, China, and is supported by many top family offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Korea. EVG is a deep partner of Animoca, and the two have cross-held shares and participated in the incubation and investment of various projects in the GameFi/NFT field. EVG has two distinct characteristics. First, it relies on its extensive and strong global resource network to provide financing services (FA) for many projects and institutions; second, in addition to simple financial investments, EVG is also good at deep-incubating projects, incubating projects such as Kikitrade, Aspen Digital, and Vibra.
Portfolio: Animoca,Dapper Labs, Kraken, Sandbox, Flow, Blockto, HighStreet, Crema Finance, OP Games, iZumi Finance, rct AI...
Official website:https://www.evg.co/
Twitter:https://mobile.twitter.com/evg_ventures
Cobo Ventures
Cobo Ventures is the investment division of the digital asset service platform Cobo. Cobo provides a range of services such as escrow, DeFi funds, and Cobo SaaS. It has accumulated more than 300 institutional clients around the world, managed more than $3 billion in assets, and is committed to building infrastructure in various DeFi fields. Cobo Ventures mainly invests around the DeFi sector, including DeFi infrastructure, applications, smart contracts, cross-chains, but is also exploring fields such as the metaverse and GameFi. Cobo Ventures' slogan is “We're Wise Money” (We're Smart Money), and it can better help DeFi projects grow by relying on Cobo's technical, capital, and resource network advantages.
Portfolio: iZUMi Finance,Safeheron, Orbiter, Gammax, Flashwire, Li.Finance,EdgeSwap，Orderly Network，TwitterScan…
Official website:https://www.cobo.com/ventures
Twitter:https://twitter.com/Cobo_Global
Continue Capital
Continue CapitalEstablished in 2016, both founding partners were early evangelists in the Ethereum community. Co-founder Pima led investments in more than 40 projects including Cosmos, Qtum, Tezos, Polkadot, Iost, Zilliqa, and Quarkchain. He is the largest individual investor in China for OmiseGo, Zilliqa, and Polkadot, and named $ATOM in Chinese. Another co-founder, Xiahong Lin, is based in Silicon Valley and is a former mobile development engineer at Twitter who also founded a blockchain company. Continue Capital focuses on boutique investments and only invests in projects that can be understood by itself and have research understanding, but there are few initiatives at present.
Portfolio: Polkadot, Hedera, NEAR Protocolr, Cosmos, Celer Network, Filecoin, RSS3, IOST, Balancer, Qtum,Tezos, Zilliqa, Harmony, Coinlist, Algorand,Octopus Protocol...
Official website:https://continue.capital/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ContinueFund
Incuba Alpha
Incuba AlphaIt is a cryptocurrency fund originating in Japan that focuses on early stage entrepreneurs in the decentralized finance (Defi), DAO, and Web3 sectors. Incuba sees itself as a strategic partner for startups, supporting the team in the design of token economy and governance mechanisms, marketing positioning, and community building, particularly in Japan.
Portfolio: Near, Mask, Ethsign, iZumi Finance, Aki Protocol, RSS3,SignalPlus...
Official website:https://www.incuba.capital/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/Incuba_Alpha
Caballeros Capital
Caballeros CapitalIt is an early venture capital agency focusing on Web 3 agreements, projects, and founders. It focuses on the Chinese-speaking and Southeast Asian markets, thinking critically about how to empower the founding team, and actively supporting crypto-native projects. Caballeros Capital has a strong ability to find early alpha and has been recognized by Portfolio.
Portfolio: Polkadot,Sentiment, Ren, Polynomia, Radicle, OP Games, Ocean, ZKX, nftperp,Eclipse...
Official website:https://caballeroscapital.com/#/home
Twitter:https://twitter.com/CaballerosCap
Smrti Lab
Smrti LabIt is an open, evergreen hedge fund that makes long-term investments in emerging cryptocurrencies on the open and primary markets with an asset management scale of 140 million dollars. Smrti Labs' investment style is mainly BTC/ETH long strategies, early-stage investments and hedge funds, and mainly invests in the emerging crypto infrastructure of liquid tokens.
Portfolio: Galxe, CyberConnect,Ancient 8, Dfinity, Flashbots, Mobilecoin, Celestia, ZetaChain,BreederDAO, Blast Royale, Ancient 8, P12, Delysium, MirrorWorld...
Official website:https://www.smrtilab.xyz/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/smrti_lab
Binance Labs
Binance LabsIt is Binance's venture capital and incubation division, personally headed by Binance co-founder He Yi, with a capital of approximately $7.5 billion. Despite several major changes in the Binance Labs core team, over the past three years, Binance Labs has invested in more than 200 projects in over 25 countries, covering almost every Web3 related circuit. In terms of investment style, Binance Labs favors deep participation in early projects and has extremely strong bargaining power.
Portfolio: zkSync, LayerZero, SPACE ID, Symbiosis Finance, Sui, Celestia, Aptos, Injective, Certik, Axie Infinity, STEPN, NYM, Axelar, Polygon, Dune Analytics, Astar Network, Multichain, 1inch Network, Mythical Games, Biconomy, Chiliz, Celer Network, Mask Network, PolyHedra, Hooked Protocol, Ankr, Hashflow, PancakeSwap, StarryShift, Wombat Exchange, Terra, The Sandbox, Moonbeam, Kava, Harmony, Oasis Network ...
Official website:https://labs.binance.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/BinanceLabs
Huobi Ventures
Huobi VenturesIt is Huobi's global investment division. Through capital operations, it empowers Huobi's global layout and promotes common growth and interests with global partners. In the last bull market cycle, Huobi Ventures received large reports by investing and exiting Terra and Matic. Since then, it has successively participated in Matter Labs and Offchain Labs investments, saving up tickets for the next cycle.
Portfolio: zkSync, Animoca Brands, Arbitrum, Conflux,optimism, NYM,Immutable X, Biconomy, Circle, Stacks, Celer Network, RSS, IOST, Oasis Network, Pyth Network, Ren, Oasys, Highstreet, Terra...
Official website:https://www.huobi.com/en-us/huobiventures
Twitter:https://twitter.com/HuobiVentures
OKX Ventures
OKXVentures is an investment division of OKX with an initial capital of $100 million, focusing on investments in blockchain infrastructure, Layer 2, DeFi, NFTs, Metaverse, etc. OKX Ventures said it will provide a wide range of post-investment services for investment projects, whether in China, Silicon Valley, Japan, South Korea, or Southeast Asia. It has formed a resource network with local media and KOLs to help entrepreneurs from different perspectives. Additionally, projects in which OKX Ventures is deeply involved and invested will be recommended to OKX and have access to many OKX products, services, promotional resources, users, and brand endorsements.
Portfolios:Matter Labs, Offchain Labs, Sei Network, Metis, LayerZero, Scroll, ssv.network, Big Time, RACA, Octopus Network, Rage Trade...
Official website:https://www.okx.com/en-in/ventures
Twitter:https://twitter.com/okx_ventures
Mirana Ventures
Founded in 2021, Mirana is Bybit's investment division dedicated to supporting the transition of companies, protocols, networks, and DAOs to a more decentralized society. It mainly invests in crypto companies strategically linked to Bybit and BitDAO, with investments ranging from $200,000 to $20 million.
Portfolio: Matter Labs, Animoca Brands, Galxe, Oasys, Scroll, Ancient 8,ETHsign, iZUMi Finance, BlockSec, UMA,Mirror world, Tsunami Finance, Orbiter Finance, EPIC LEAGUE...
Official website:https://mirana.xyz/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/mirana
KuCoin Labs
KuCoin Labs, the investment and incubation division of KuCoin, makes diversified investments in early-stage projects while helping the project parties continue to grow. At the same time, KuCoin also has KuCoin Ventures within KuCoin that also makes related investments, which are more strategic.
Portfolio: Symbiosis Finance, Pyth Network,LiveArtX, Solcial, DAOASquare,Coinweb, Aura Network,Lifeform...
Official website:https://www.kucoin.com/land/kucoinlabs
Twitter:https://twitter.com/KCLabsOfficial
Gate Ventures
Gate Ventures is the venture capital arm of cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io, which focuses on investing in decentralized infrastructure, ecosystems, and applications.
Portfolio: Oasys, StarryLift, Aspecta, WOO Network, LiveArtX, Dora Factory...
Official website:https://gate-ventures.com/
M-Ventures
M-Ventures is a comprehensive fund under the MEXC Group. It is committed to empowering innovation in the cryptocurrency field through strategic investments, mergers and acquisitions, FOF, and project incubation, and has invested in hundreds of projects.
Portfolio: izumi Finance, Aura Network, KYVE, WOO Network, PrePO, Orderly Protocol, TwitterScan...
Official website:https://m-ventures.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/MVenturesLabs
Bonfire Union Ventures (Mask Network)
Bonfire Union Ventures is the investment division of Mask Network. It is committed to investing in the revival of open networks and has invested in a wide range of decentralized social products and protocols. Mask Network founder Suji has extensive personal influence in the Asian crypto world. Tianran Zhang, head of investment at Bonfire Union Ventures, runs the best quality crypto community in the Chinese crypto world, bringing together various entrepreneurs, crypto VC investors, and dollar fund investors, and is a major resource hub.
Portfolio: Oasys, 0xScope, Shield Protocol, RCT AI, Galxe, Ethsign, Cyberconnect, RSS3, NFTGo, Showme, Orbiter Fiance...
Official website:https://mask.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/BonfireUnion
Y2Z Ventures
Established in 2021, y2z Ventures (formerly metaverse capital) is a long-term venture capital fund focusing on metaverse and Web3. Its brand is, From Yesterday to Gen Z, dedicated to supporting young people and startups interested in building metaverse infrastructure, creating metaverse content, and spreading Oriental culture. Y2Z Ventures has provided assistance to many Web3 entrepreneurs in their early years and during difficult times, and has been recognized and respected in the Chinese world, especially among young entrepreneurs.
Portfolio: RSS3, Mask Network, Delysium, Blocto, Matrix World, DeGame, Cedar, Orbiter Finance,Panony, ChainFeeds, SeedAO, NFTScan, Ethsign, RCT AI, Mexico...
Official website:https://y2z.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/y2z_Ventures
Zonff Partners
Zonff Partners (Zonff Partners) is a venture capital company founded in 2016 that invests in technology companies from seed to late stages. In addition to the cryptocurrency sector, the investment fields also involve cutting-edge technology, bio/healthcare, and consumer sectors. One of Zonff Partners' main focus is startups that create value for the decentralized economy, and have completed asset allocations across multiple fields across the blockchain ecosystem, including quantitative hedge funds, computing power funds, and NFT art funds (VulcanDAO).
Portfolio: IoTeX, Polkadot, Conflux, Certik, Algorand, Celer Network, IOST, Mask Network, Delysium, Solv Protocol, DODO, Zilliqa, Orbiter Finance, Crema Finance...
Official website:http://www.zonff.partners/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ZonffPartners
CatcherVC
CatcherVCIt is a crypto investment fund initiated by the core team of Chinese-language crypto media chain catchers. It pursues a research-oriented approach to explore innovative projects in the blockchain world and shares its resources and insights with all stakeholders to provide real and lasting value.
Portfolio: Scroll, Metis, Orbiter Finance,Dmail, Alex, Blocto,GuildFi, Solv Protocol, PlatON,Bloktopia...
Official website:https://www.catchervc.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/CatcherVC
Waterdrip Capital
Water Drop CapitalNamed after the powerful weapon “Water Drop” in the famous sci-fi novel “Three Bodies,” it was founded in 2017 by the OG of the Chinese crypto industry. Its co-founder, Cancer, is the Chinese nominee for Ethereum. Shuidi Capital aims to accurately invest in the most promising blockchain startups and empower them with diverse resources.
Portfolio: Scroll, Metis, Blocto, Desmo, Moonbeam, Footprint Analytics, Dora Factory, SubDAO...
Official website:http://waterdrip.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/waterdripfund
Arkstream Capital
ArkStream Capital is a crypto-native fund dedicated to speeding up the Web 3.0 unicorn. In the early days, it supported many star projects such as AAVE, Polkadot, FLOW, etc., and its predecessor was the crypto marketing agency BlockArk, which brought many projects to the Chinese-speaking region.
Portfolio: Secret Network, REALY, Particle Network, Blocto, Anima, Ankr, Oasis Nework, DAOSquare...
Official website:https://arkstream.capital/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ark_stream
Honglou Capital
Honglou Capital is the first venture capital company in Taiwan focusing on the integration of blockchain technology and digital technology. Using Venture Studio as an enabling venture capital, it not only invests capital, but also actually contributes to helping startups grow in business. The overall style is incubation. Honglou Capital is named after Taipei Jianguo High School, which symbolizes Red House.
Portfolios:Klaytn，InsurAce，Dappio, Blocto, YIN, Reef Finance, Parsiq, Kyoko...
Official website:https://www.rbcap.io/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/RedBuildingCap
Matrixport Ventures
Matrixport Ventures is the venture capital arm of Matrixport, Asia's largest crypto financial services platform. The co-founders of Matrixport include Wu Jihan, the former CEO of Bitmain, and Ge Yuesheng, the former director of Bitmain.
Portfolio: LayerZero, Galxe, Bitget Wallet, Orbiter Finance,GamMax, Ethos, MarsBit News, Ethsign, Sentiment...
Official website:https://www.matrixport.ventures/
Youbi Capital
Youbi Capital was co-founded by veteran Wall Street investment experts, Bitcoin mining pool owners, and crypto investors.
Portfolio: Avalanche, Yeild Guild Games,Octopus Network, Algorand, NFTGo, iZumi Finance, Pendle, RSS3, Mask Network, Debank, PlatON, Footprint Analytics, DAOSquare...
Official website:https://www.youbicapital.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/youbicapital
Spark Digital Capital
Spark Digital CapitalEstablished in 2018, it is a research-focused crypto fund that invests in the future of blockchain and technology.
Portfolio: Certik, STEPN, The Graph, 1inch Network, Octopus Network,MultiversX, Celer Nework, Hashflow, Dmail...
Official website:https://sparkdigitalcapital.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/capital_spark
C² Ventures
C² VenturesAn early-stage Web3 investment company with a founding partner of former Huobi executiveCiara Sun。
Portfolio: Galxe, CyberConnect, Ancient 8, AlienSwap, Blast Royale, Orderly, Pocket Protocol, Ramper, Tanssi Network...
Official website:https://www.csquared.vc/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/CsquaredVC
In addition to the above crypto VC institutions, there are also many angel investors with high net worth and unique influence in the Chinese-speaking market, such as:
Liang Xinjun, the co-founder of Fosun Group, often appears in various project financing news and has invested in 0xSCOPE, Smart Token Labs, etc.;
Former chain editor Liu Feng's fund BODL has invested in Smart Token Labs, Keystone, etc.;
Wang Yiming, founder of JDI Global, founded Wang Ventures;
Dovey Wan, the former managing director of Danhua Capital, is an angel investor in GMX and many other star projects;
Blake, a former partner at LD Capital, is also actively involved in early-stage investments in various projects as an angel investor;
Dodo founder DaiDai also initiated Puzzle Ventures, investing in Aurora, GoPlus, etc.
Traditional funds
Since many traditional dollar funds are constrained by policy frameworks, LPs, management scale (too large but not easy to invest), decision-making mechanisms, etc., traditional dollar funds often show some opportunist tendencies in Web3 investments. Many investors who once thought they were all in Crypto began to switch to AI, and the explosion of several unicorns in the crypto world has also made many traditional investment institutions fearful and discouraged.
However, we still see that many traditional dollar funds are active in the cryptocurrency primary market, and have even become core investors in many highly valued first-tier projects.
Traditional funds that are currently active or performing very actively in the crypto primary market include Qiming Venture Capital, XVC, Sky9, BAI Capital, Lanchi Venture, Atlas Capital, Sequoia China, IDG, Huaying Capital, SIG, Jingwei Venture Capital, Red Dot China, Taihe Capital, Beituo Capital, and Tencent. In addition to direct investment projects, many traditional dollar funds are also LPs for many Cypto Fund.
In the crypto bear market, Cypto Fund is often more cautious and unable to invest large amounts of money in highly valued projects. As a result, traditional dollar funds with huge management scales have become the only fundraising options for many high-valuation projects. For example, Scroll and Taiko, the core investors in the last round of financing for the Layer 2 expansion project were traditional institutions, and the investment amount of individual institutions reached tens of millions or even tens of millions of dollars.
As far as portfolio is concerned, the traditional dollar fund with the best investment performance is IDG, which participated in the Coinbase seed round in 2012, Ripple in 2013, Circle in 2015, Bitmain in 2017, KuCoin and imToken in 2018, Matrixport in 2019... Currently, it is more a joint investment with Circle\ KuCoin.
The crypto primary market continues to be sluggish, and the US dollar fund itself faces great challenges in raising capital. AI transfers capital and attention. Please cherish traditional dollar fund investors who are still actively exploring and investing in Web3 projects.
5. Suggestions for communication in the Chinese-language market
Judging from our actual exchange experience. In the past two years, due to market policies, many overseas projects will deliberately avoid the Chinese-speaking market. Some projects, even if they have the idea of expanding the Chinese language, will be relatively cautious, or try to avoid participating in an official manner. However, since the beginning of this year, there has been a marked shift in attitude towards the Chinese-speaking market in terms of many projects.
Even from a policy perspective, it is not a mainland Chinese market, but the Chinese-speaking market outside the mainland market, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, North America, and Europe, is still a strong source of purchasing power, and benefits from the Chinese community's engineer dividends. There are a large number of developers, and it has also become a target that many public chain ecosystems have to recruit.
A direct example is that the project party's consideration of the Chinese-speaking market has changed from “whether to become a Chinese-speaking market” to “how to do a good job in the Chinese-speaking market.” As a major group in the Asia-Pacific market, the Chinese-speaking market has a large base and rich projects and communities, and cooperation with reputable partners is very important. Therefore, if you want to do a good job of localization, it is particularly important to recruit team members who are familiar with the local market and culture.
Judging from the concerns, there is no big difference between the concerns of Chinese speaking users and the international market. However, in the public's impression, Chinese people generally don't like pure Chinese team projects because there are too many rug projects (some overseas communities also have a similar phenomenon) and lack top star projects and bring wealth effects, but recently due to the rise of “Chinese Narrative” and the excellent performance of some Chinese-language projects, this phenomenon has improved.
Generally speaking, Chinese-speaking users will pay more attention to a project due to the following characteristics:
Potential airdrops: When describing your marketing activities, you can give some potential airdrop expectations in some copywriting or link settings, so more users or influencers will be willing to share your project.
Non-Chinese projects: More prominent international backgrounds and past successful experiences.
Endorsements from major institutions: Partners here are not only VCs, but also some high-quality project parties, market makers, etc. If your financing amount is large enough, it is also recommended to disclose it, which will make people more willing to participate in your project.
Operational capability: “Can the project side pull the wheel?” “Who is Zhuang?” These words often appear in major Chinese-speaking communities. Although the description is too “grounded,” it also reflects that in addition to paying attention to the fundamentals of the project, users also value the actual operation ability of the project.
Recently, however, due to the theft and mishandling of projects endorsed by many large organizations, the brand effect of large organizations will decline slightly.
Another thing I have to mention is KOL. Since Twitter's influence has taken the lead in the Chinese-speaking market, and the sensitivity of channels such as Weibo/WeChat, many Chinese-speaking KOLs have already arrived on Twitter, but when doing marketing on Twitter, you should pay attention to the following points:
The quality of fans is greater than the number of fans: Twitter is a very easy channel for secondary dissemination. As a brand, we should supply high-quality communication content for high-quality KOLs, and at the same time select KOLs who are deeply involved in the brand's racetrack, do a good job of quality coverage for fans, and then do brand coverage.
Instead of one-size-fits-all copywriting, let KOLs have room to play: Recently, due to some project parties searching for KOLs to post almost the same communication content, at the end of the day, many Chinese-speaking users are disgusted after seeing homogenized content. In traditional PR strategies, there is a term called “disassemble”, that is, reporting the same content from a different perspective. This strategy also applies to Twitter. At the same time, keep in mind that the higher the quality of KOLs, the more they have their own style and care for their feathers, and brands should try to make important KOLs produce customized special content.
Twitter should be one of the integration strategies, not the only channel: due to Twitter's social nature, its greater value lies in the secondary dissemination and interpretation of content. Brands should first have good content accumulation and then spread it twice through Twitter. Also pay attention to the time and pace of transmission.
The above is only a partial list; actual execution should be combined according to the characteristics of the project itself. Of course, brands that are new to the Chinese-speaking market can also gain attention through media and events.
You can try to first conduct joint activities with projects with a Chinese language background to understand the Chinese community atmosphere, meet and select the first group of Chinese speaking users, and then consider expanding your influence a little bit. Once you have the first wave of Chinese-speaking users, communicate more with them and listen to their suggestions and feedback on the project itself.
A more in-depth and complete introduction report was later published, with the aim of forming a comprehensive Chinese content deposit. When a new user wants to get to know you, having an official approval and comprehensive content presentation will onboard the new user faster and better. We need comprehensive, explosive content, not fragmented content. In fact, much of the Chinese-language content is also compiled twice from overseas, and problems such as inaccurate and incomplete content often occur.
The exact method you need to use depends on your specific communication plan and content. Of course, no matter what channel it is, the content to be distributed needs to be adapted to the local language and culture in order to better stimulate users' interest, such as using local language/memes to increase communication power.
For the Taiwanese market, we invited local Taiwanese users who work for the exchange and have more than ten years of market experience to share with you the local market situation in Taiwan. The core includes:
Compared to making money, most stable users prefer steady growth e.g. lending and fixed investment
To gain the trust of users, efforts are needed to have localized brand representatives leading the community
Taiwanese people love to gamble, but conservatively use small games such as IEO, Launchpad
The management community places more emphasis on the steady delivery of high-quality content e.g. deep waves
KOL has a very high level of trust in the Taiwan market. Therefore, when launching a Web3 project, it is possible to increase user trust through the power of KOL. For example, when FTX entered the Taiwan market, by setting up the role of a community partner, a real face appeared in front of Taiwanese users to eat, meet, and broadcast live with users, and actually carry out transactions and share experiences of success or failure on site, showing actual performance that can withstand market tests, all of which enhance users' sense of trust.
Tips for working with KOLs:
Cooperation efficiency: When writing promotional materials and creating images for KOLs, make sure they match the tone of KOL, so you can improve the efficiency of collaboration. The suggestion is to use ChatGPT because he's probably smarter than the human brain at this.
Quality of cooperation: directly ask KOL where improvements are needed, and feedback progress from time to time to improve the quality of cooperation.
Maintaining relationships: Be thoughtful in your gifting, and choose gifts that suit important people close to your KOL, so they can feel special. If the gift for KOL herself is a dazzling product that everyone has, you can ask KOL to thank you for the gift when posting.
Even though Taiwanese users haven't actually entered the market, they've heard of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, and even more direct NFTs, the metaverse, etc. To dispel users' concerns, don't discuss the underlying technical issues with them, but directly compare things they are familiar with, such as: the Bank of Taiwan has an annual interest rate of about 1% on US dollar demand deposits, while the exchange's USDT earn APR is over 3%; if you put money in a bank, once the bank goes bankrupt, the money is gone, but if you use a blockchain decentralized ledger, everyone will record how much money you have and your assets are safer.
According to Meta's 2023 data, the Taiwanese market's community usage rate has reached 95.4% of people aged 18 and over, and they spend an average of 2 hours and 6 minutes per day with the community. The channel characteristics of Taiwanese users are outstanding. Running a good community is basically half the win, yet running a community also takes the most time to build up trust. The only advice for running a community in the Taiwan market is to “be a loyal audience for your own community.” Taiwanese users aren't particularly willing to share news, and using engagement rate as a KPI might disappoint you (but Europe should be even more disappointed hahaha). However, if the content posted by the project party is something that the audience is looking forward to watching, of course, there is no need to worry about the conversion rate.
The market is changing a lot. Preparing a product does not mean the market is ready to meet you. I hope this content will help you better understand the Chinese-speaking market and formulate an appropriate market strategy.
