Inverting The Human-Agent Relationship
In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated then-World Champion Garry Kasparov in a chess match, and it became clear that computer chess engines would soon surpass humans. Interestingly, a well-prepared human working together with a computer—an arrangement often called a "centaur"—could outperform the strongest engines of that era.
The Solana Thesis: Internet Capital Markets
Multicoin Capital has been investing in Solana’s native asset, SOL, and the broader Solana ecosystem since Solana’s seed round in May 2018. We have previously published four theses about Solana in that time. The first two were published about nine months before mainnet produced its first block in March 2020. As the Solana network has evolved, so has our frame of reference on how to think about the Solana network, and SOL the asset.
Some Things Never Change, Even In 2025
One of the best quotes from Jeff Bezos is: “What's going to change in the next 10 years?' And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' Earlier this week, we published a stereotypical VC post about new areas that our investment team is looking forward to seeing in 2025.
Frontier Ideas For 2025
2025 is poised to be a pivotal year for the industry. The emergence of the first pro-crypto regulatory framework, combined with the technical maturity of Layer 1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, DePIN networks, and stablecoins, is creating fertile ground for the next wave of frontier innovations. Staying true to our tradition, we’re sharing the ideas and opportunities that excite us most for the year ahead.
Highlights From The 2024 Multicoin Summit
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Last month, we hosted the Multicoin Summit in New York City. This annual gathering allows us to spotlight the most important trends of the year and share our insights on what to expect in the years ahead. To help unpack these ideas, we assembled an outstanding lineup of speakers, including founders and CEOs from Drift, Hivemapper, Baxus, Jito, Pyth, dFlow, Solana, Visa, and Double Zero.
P2P Pipes
The first large scale P2P application on the Internet was Napster (email/SMTP was designed to be P2P and self-hosted, but in practice ended up federated). The spiritual successor to Napster was the BitTorrent protocol, which at peak, represented ~25-35% of all internet traffic in the mid-2000s. Both were permissionless: anyone could host any file.
The Great Energy Coordination Problem
Today, we are proud to announce a $12M round in Fuse. Fuse is a core contributor to Project Zero, a renewable energy DePIN designed to solve the great energy coordination problem. Fuse is a full-stack renewable energy company built by Alan Chang and Charles Orr, who were both early employees at Revolut. Alan and Charles were pivotal to the early growth of Revolut, and set their sights on solving the energy crisis in 2022.
Drift ($DRIFT) Analysis and Valuation
Multicoin has accumulated a large position across our funds—both liquid and venture—in DRIFT, the native token of Drift, a derivatives decentralized exchange (derivatives DEX) on Solana. We built the position over the last few years via private and public markets. An executive summary of our 25 page report is presented below.
All Markets Are Not Created Equal: 7 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Blockchain-Enabled Collectibles Marketplaces (BECMs)
Collecting is big business. Today, over one-third of Americans self-identify as collectors, and, as of 2024, the market size for collectibles is now nearly $500 billion dollars. Collectibles are a booming industry—and blockchains are coming for them. A growing subset of the world’s collectors are actually traders whose sole intent is to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of collectibles—from rare whiskeys to luxury watches to handbags—with the goal of flipping them and making a profit.
The Endgame for Stablecoins
Today, we’re proud to announce our investment in Mountain Protocol, the issuer of USDM, a permissionless, yield-bearing stablecoin backed entirely by US Treasuries. We led the Series A round, which also included Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and others. Stablecoins are among the largest addressable markets in crypto.
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