Editor's note: During the Devcon in Bangkok, the "DeInsight 2024" annual summit held by Web3 asset data platform RootData and ChainCatcher officially released (RootData: 2024 Web3 Industry Development Research Report and Annual List) (click the link to view the full report and list).
This report provides a detailed analysis and interpretation of the development characteristics of the Web3 entrepreneurial investment market in 2024 and prominently releases the RootData List 2024. This list is the second annual selection launched by RootData following its first release in 2023, and its results are gaining more attention from entrepreneurs, investors, LPs, and crypto enthusiasts.
The RootData List 2024 includes five lists, specifically: Top 50 projects (completed TGE), Top 50 projects (not yet conducted TGE), Crypto VC Top 50 investment institutions, Top 10 angel investors, and Top 20 best CEOs.
ChainCatcher will publish a series of articles, interviewing projects and institutions listed on the RootData List 2024, seeking builders who can navigate through bull and bear markets and tracking the latest trends in Web3.
Today, the listed institution ABCDE Capital has been selected for the RootData List 2024 annual list "Crypto VC Top 50 Investment Institutions."
The bull market starting in 2024 is basically expected for ABCDE. A year ago, the Bitcoin spot ETF had not yet been approved. ABCDE Capital co-founder BMAN emphasized in an exclusive interview with ChainCatcher that under the resonance of multiple factors such as the Bitcoin halving in 2024, the US elections, interest rate cuts, and the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF, ABCDE is bullish on the crypto market in 2024 and 2025.
Due to our continued optimism about the crypto market in the next year or two, ABCDE has maintained a rapid investment pace in both 2023 and 2024. Especially in 2024, ABCDE will almost average two investments per month, having invested in more than 20 projects including Merlin Chain, UniSat, Solv Protocol, Solayer, and previously invested in star projects across various tracks such as Polyhedra, Cysic, MegaETH, Babylon, Matr1x, and 0xScope.
Recently, BMAN stated in an interview with ChainCatcher that ABCDE's investment philosophy has always revolved around new technological dividends and demographic dividends. The Bitcoin ecosystem, AI narratives, and high-performance public chains remain the key investment focuses for ABCDE. During the meme coin explosion cycle, ABCDE is also learning from and encouraging its portfolio to embrace more community-driven meme strategies.
The Bitcoin ecosystem and AI narratives remain key investment focuses.
1. ChainCatcher: In 2024, ABCDE still maintained a relatively fast investment pace. Can you summarize your investment strategy or focus for this year? What was the biggest investment gain and regret this year?
BMAN: Our investment philosophy still revolves around the new technological dividends and applications with demographic dividends. In 2024, we invested 1/3 of our funds in the Bitcoin ecosystem, another 1/3 in Ethereum, Solana, and some focusing on high-performance infrastructure ecosystems, including real-time blockchains like MegaETH, and the remaining 1/3 in some new types of applications, including AI, trading, chain abstraction, and high-performance applications.
Our biggest gain is that we have invested in many leading projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and we have also invested in the leading real-time blockchain MegaETH.
In terms of applications, we have also laid out some AI applications. If there is a regret, it is that our bets on these leading projects are not heavy enough; we will be more aggressive in investing in projects with leading potential going forward.
2. ChainCatcher: A significant part of ABCDE's investment this year is still focused on the Bitcoin ecosystem. In the second half of this year, the Bitcoin ecosystem seems to be cooling down. What stage do you think the Bitcoin ecosystem is currently at? Are there any directions that have been disproven? What specific directions is ABCDE currently focusing on in the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem?
BMAN: The Bitcoin ecosystem is still very young. Since the BRC20 was launched in March last year, Bitcoin can only be called an ecosystem, which has only been developing for about a year and a half. In contrast, the Solana ecosystem took six to seven years to develop over one and a half cycles, so I think it is still too early to draw conclusions about the Bitcoin ecosystem.
We can look at the Bitcoin ecosystem from the short-term and medium to long-term perspectives. In the short term, we will view our investment in Babylon as a barometer next year, as many projects will still revolve around Babylon for native staking.
Additionally, in 2025 we will focus on the BTCFi ecosystem. After Bitcoin becomes a national strategic reserve for the United States, other countries are expected to gradually start their Bitcoin reserves as well. Including financial giants like BlackRock holding Bitcoin, they will definitely want to utilize Bitcoin, leading to some BTCFi scenarios. We have already invested in BTCFi candidates such as Solv Protocol, Lombard, Echo Protocol, and Lorenzo Protocol.
In the medium to long term, we will focus on the progress of OP_CAT and the BVM protocol. If OP_CAT and BVM can truly enable Bitcoin's first layer to perform verification and scaling, it will encourage developers to explore more in the Bitcoin ecosystem, such as native cross-chain and native Layer 2, etc.
3. ChainCatcher: ABCDE is very focused on the infrastructure sector. However, many projects in this sector this year have experienced high valuations, large financing, airdrop points, and listings on exchanges, but their performance and ecological development after listing have not met expectations. What do you think are the reasons behind this? What insights has this brought to your investments?
BMAN: The ICOs that started in 2017 were driven by entrepreneurs and VCs. After going through a cycle, many infrastructures emerged, many of which were just reinventing the wheel, leading to market fatigue.
Many large VCs have excessively raised valuations and then put them on the market, making it difficult to have enough buying power to support such large market cap projects. For community users, it is better to rush into some projects that were launched fairly and are fully circulating from the beginning, as they expect to one day become true participants and builders of these token projects.
4. ChainCatcher: You mentioned that you are also paying attention to AI applications on the blockchain. Specifically, what attempts or innovative trends are you looking at?
BMAN: We have invested in multiple AI projects, and we have always believed that blockchain and AI are a natural combination.
The interaction of blockchain is actually very difficult for ordinary users to grasp. They need to learn to remember wallet mnemonic phrases and Gas fees, etc. But if you interact with an AI bot, you will find it very native because the blockchain is purely native, digital, and fully open ledger. If we consider bots and some trading strategies as AI, in fact, 90% of on-chain activities are AI or bots.
Like various smart money rushing into the meme coins on Pump.fun, in fact, they are all bots competing for listings and trades. In the face of these bots and AI, pure human trading has little advantage. We believe that in the future, even over 95% of on-chain activities will be bots and AI.
We have also been watching AI agents, AI payments, AI trading, and projects that give AI financial rights. We invested early in 0xScope, a project combining data and AI, and recently invested in two AI agent projects and AI trading projects.
5. ChainCatcher: What are your investment plans for 2025? What directions are you focusing on?
BMAN: The overall direction has not changed, still focusing on three major directions.
Firstly, AI, focusing on giving more financial permissions to AI, AI trading, AI assetization, etc. Secondly, the Bitcoin ecosystem, with a focus on BTCFi. Thirdly, new high-performance ecosystems, such as new consumer-level application ecosystems emerging after MegaETH.
In 2025, we hope to invest in more leading projects, and we will also heavily invest in and increase our stakes in the leading projects we are already involved in.
VC coins should embrace a more community-driven approach to meme coins.
6. ChainCatcher: Trump's election has excited the crypto community. Do you think the crypto market is overly optimistic? What predictions do you have for the direction of the crypto market after Trump's inauguration?
BMAN: Since ABCDE was founded in 2022, we have estimated the cycle after the 2024 Bitcoin halving, US elections, interest rate cuts, etc. The current market development is in line with our expectations.
We are very optimistic about the market for next year, especially in the first half of the year. At the beginning of next year, with Trump's official inauguration, more crypto-friendly policies will emerge, and the overall entrepreneurial atmosphere will improve. American startup teams are very optimistic and proactive because they can now work freely without the influence of high-pressure policies. Many founders are also preparing to return to the US to build. We will also invest more manpower and funds in the US.
7. ChainCatcher: Some opinions believe that after Trump takes office, with relaxed crypto policies, market attention may shift back to value coins, which could be bearish for memes. What do you think? What judgments do you have regarding the development landscape of VC coins and meme coins in 2025?
BMAN: Not necessarily. Both Trump and Musk are very meme-oriented. Memes have shown phenomenal performance in this cycle, and people will regard it as a Crypto native means, turning some serious and highbrow content into memes, allowing the community to unleash creativity to create new assets. This is somewhat reminiscent of the ICO boom in 2017, except that the ICOs back then were more driven by entrepreneurs, while memecoins are community-driven, so I believe memes will continue to remain in everyone's view.
Although we as an institution cannot directly participate in memes, we will study it as a phenomenon.
We believe that memes are indeed fairer and more community-driven. We also suggest that the portfolio and the community become closer, question memecoins, understand memecoins, and become memecoins.
8. ChainCatcher: Recently, a project called ORA conducted a direct on-chain TGE; will this become a trend? How do you view this approach?
BMAN: This is also a strategy for memes. Many so-called VC coins will embrace a more community-driven approach to memes in the future. VC coins will become meme-like, and many memes may take on VC characteristics. This is a process of mutual integration.
The Ethereum Foundation needs a major overhaul to break the deadlock.
9. ChainCatcher: What are your feelings about participating in Devcon? How do you view the challenges facing the Ethereum ecosystem and its future development?
BMAN: My feeling when I went to the main venue is that Ethereum still has a very pure idealistic atmosphere. It is still the first stop for many new builders entering Crypto, as many of its foundational infrastructures are relatively mature and easier to grasp. Most innovations still tend to originate from Ethereum and then spread to ecosystems like Solana and BTC. From an investment perspective, we will continue to focus on native innovations in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Of course, it also has some issues, such as the Ethereum Foundation being too slow. I believe that the "Beam Chain" proposed by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake does not need 5 years; if it were a Chinese developer, it could be done in two to three years.
However, the Ethereum Foundation's low efficiency and slow iteration have not been a problem for just one or two years. The organization of the Ethereum Foundation is rigid, and some core personnel have long been lying flat, so the Ethereum Foundation needs a major overhaul to break this deadlock.
From the perspective of coin prices, the increase in this cycle is almost impossible to match the previous round, but it will likely maintain its position as the number one ecosystem in public chains.
10. ChainCatcher: As a listed entity on the RootData annual list, what are your thoughts? How do you evaluate this kind of Web3 venture capital list?
BMAN: I use RootData's data every day. The industry particularly needs a comprehensive and rapidly iterating data platform like RootData to help investors identify good institutions and teams from a data perspective and produce professional data and research reports. These are all tough jobs, and RootData has taken them on, which is a great contribution to the industry.
