It’s January 29th, 2025—the first day of the Chinese New Year, which my family and I just celebrated, welcoming the Year of the Snake. Outside my window, Boston is blanketed in snow, its winter charm as familiar as ever. But I know—spring will come soon.

Today, I want to share my journey—the dots that have connected, leading me to found tmr Ventures. So here it is—our genesis story.

A Technologist’s Introduction to Finance & Crypto

I trained as a computer engineer but entered finance right after graduation—investing had always been my passion, and I believed the future lay at the intersection of disciplines. From banks to hedge funds to fintech companies, from coding to trading to consulting, I explored the entire financial ecosystem, gaining deep institutional knowledge. My technical background helped me understand the fundamental building blocks of these systems, but it also exposed me to the inefficiencies deeply embedded within them.

When I first read Bitcoin’s white paper in 2013, I was struck by its simple yet elegant architecture. Sitting at the intersection of technology and finance, I immediately recognized its potential to revolutionize how we trade and exchange value. Then came Ripple in 2014, further reinforcing my belief that innovation was accelerating—I was so convinced that I even applied for a job there.

Like any true tech nerd, I had an idealistic vision of blockchain transforming everything. My passion led me down the rabbit hole—I couldn’t stop talking about it to anyone who would listen. Along the way, I was lucky to cross paths with visionary founders, bold investors, and inspiring mentors who challenged and encouraged me. The journey was never easy or smooth, but there was never a dull moment.

Learning from MIT & State Street

After 11 years in Singapore for college and work, I moved to the U.S. in 2016 for my MBA at MIT Sloan. Immersed in MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative, I gained a broader perspective on blockchain’s potential far beyond finance—spanning supply chains, healthcare, and governance.

From 2018 to 2021, I worked at State Street, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, playing a key role in shaping digital asset strategies and M&A initiatives. It was a challenging time—Ethereum was slow, crypto faced mainstream skepticism, and the market was recovering from the ICO bubble burst, clouded by regulatory uncertainty. While we didn’t launch a Bitcoin ETF at the time, the rising institutional interest reinforced my belief that traditional players would become an increasingly dominant force in the cycles to come.

Crypto’s Inflection Point: Growth, Adoption, and Readiness

In 2021, I joined Inception Capital as a founding member, overseeing investments, research, and operations. Over the next three years, I witnessed explosive growth that laid the foundation for the next phase of crypto’s evolution:

• Mature Infrastructure: Advancements in L1 and L2 scaling solutions remind me of how Intel chips and Windows OS evolved together—now that we have more reliable infrastructure, it’s time for applications to drive the next wave of innovation.
• Institutional Adoption: The approval of Bitcoin and ETH spot ETFs marks the beginning of an era where growth shifts from being retail-driven to institutional and government-driven. More institutions are actively exploring ways to integrate blockchain into their products and operations.
• Regulatory Clarity: With a crypto-friendly U.S. administration, FASB’s ASU standardizing financial reporting, and MiCA setting global regulatory benchmarks, crypto is no longer “too early” or “too risky.” Each market cycle has strengthened the system, making it more resilient for long-term players.

By the end of 2024, crypto adoption had reached nearly 7% of the global population—similar to where the internet was in the late 1990s. While history doesn’t always repeat itself, patterns of technological adoption suggest we are on the cusp of exponential growth.

Bridging East and West

Over the past few years, I’ve dedicated much of my time to building a platform that connects talent, capital, and resources across Eastern and Western markets, helping projects scale globally. However, de-globalization and rising populism have created new barriers to cross-border collaboration. Cultural differences and language barriers further hinder these connections, preventing valuable knowledge exchange.

Yet, at its core, blockchain is open-source and inherently global—and I firmly believe in the power of cross-pollination of ideas and resources. Being truly bi-cultural and bilingual as a team allows us to build trusted relationships across regions and maintain a real-time pulse on both markets.

I take immense pride in being a global citizen, a mindset deeply embedded in our team and woven into the very DNA of tmr Ventures—a defining strength that continues to set us apart and drive our vision forward.

A Critical Look at the Current Crypto Space

Having invested in a strong portfolio of crypto infrastructure projects and crypto-native applications at Inception Capital, I found myself asking: What’s next?

Speculation and short-termism still dominate both mindshare and capital. While we’ve built financial and social experiments that attract crypto-native users (e.g., meme tokens, NFTs), mainstream applications with real-world utility remain scarce—aside from cross-border payments and a handful of other use cases. In many ways, we are still operating in a bubble. Will crypto ever achieve the broad impact of AI, transforming industries and becoming embedded in daily life?

Meanwhile, the crypto economy remains driven by inflationary token models and short-term incentives rather than sustainable revenue generation and real value capture. So, the fundamental question remains:

Do we continue building a world that primarily serves early adopters and crypto-natives, or do we expand our reach to truly integrate with the broader real-world economy?

A Practical Approach to Crypto’s Next Phase

With over 12 years of experience learning, building, and investing in this space, I’ve come to a key realization: Blockchain’s goal is not to disrupt or replace the existing system—it’s to integrate and enhance it. The next phase of crypto won’t be about creating a parallel, anti-establishment world but rather about solving real-world problems—both existing and new—through blockchain’s unique capabilities.

However, many of these challenges aren’t purely technical—they involve regulation, culture, and incentives. To navigate this landscape, we need a pragmatic approach, led by builders and investors who deeply understand both traditional business and the crypto ecosystem.

That’s why I founded tmr Ventures, a specialist VC fund dedicated to real-world crypto adoption. We’re driven by three fundamental beliefs:

Tokenization of (Almost) Everything

• Tokenization began with dollars and treasuries, but it will extend across financial and non-financial assets, much like how computers digitized everything in the last century.
• A global tokenized value network will democratize access to assets, enable 24/7 markets, and reduce costs—creating new opportunities in both traditional finance and DeFi.

Decentralized Infrastructure for Services

• Today, corporations and governments control critical infrastructure, but as they grow, their incentives often misalign with users.
• Blockchain enables alternative, community-driven models—imagine owning a share of a mobile network, power grid, or delivery network. We are in the early innings of this transformation.

Crypto as the Economic Layer for AI

• As a Day 1 ChatGPT user, I immediately recognized AI’s transformative potential. AI will drive productivity across industries, while crypto will enable seamless payments, ownership, and coordination for AI-driven economies.
• The synergy between AI and crypto will unlock unprecedented network effects, enhancing human productivity and reshaping global economic systems.

As a proxy for real economic scale, the global stock market is valued at $175 trillion, compared to the $3 trillion crypto economy—a strong indicator of the immense economic activity blockchain technology can facilitate in the coming decades. This evolution presents unparalleled opportunities for founders and investors.

The Counterarguments & Why We’re Here

I know the skepticism: “This isn’t new—people have talked about this for years.” But timing matters. What didn’t work before doesn’t mean it won’t work now. Fundamental and cultural shifts are happening.

“It’s hard to scale, and exits are slow.” Yes—but that’s the nature of building businesses that extend beyond purely on-chain activities. However, tokenization and AI will accelerate the innovation cycle and adoption curve. New ownership and incentive models will further drive the co-creation of products and infrastructure, making large-scale adoption more feasible than ever.

As a pre-seed investor, I’ve learned that success often comes from contrarian bets. Venture capital requires optimism—it’s easy to find flaws in any startup or idea, but our job is to ask: What if? How? Then, we make smart bets to push ideas forward. 

That belief is literally embedded in tmr Ventures’ motto:

Turning today’s ‘what ifs’ into tomorrow’s ‘what is’

tmr Ventures

I am blessed to be joined by Calvin Du on this new journey—someone who shares my enthusiasm for real-world crypto adoption and brings deep expertise from PwC and McKinsey.

By combining our institutional background, cross-border expertise, and our experience running a successful venture fund in the past, I am confident that the seeds we are planting at tmr Ventures will grow into something much bigger—creating value for our investors and making a meaningful impact on the broader ecosystem.

Closing Remarks

2025 is the Year of the Snake—a creature that sheds its skin to grow. As an industry, we must do the same: evolve, adapt, and shed legacy debt and outdated assumptions.

This is just the beginning of our journey. If you’re building or investing in this space, let’s connect—together, we can shape a better tomorrow. 🚀