Homepage / Technology / Union Square Ventures is investing in crypto for the long haul, but won’t start a dedicated fund
Due Diligence Blog Digital Data Rooms for the Netherlands Board Room Apps Secure Board Management With Secure Board Portals What Happens at Board of Directors Meetings? Board Room Software Review How to Prepare Board Rooms for Effective Board Meetings Board Room Software Boosts Performance and Communication Selecting a Secure Data Room Review Local Data Room Service Review How to Find the Best Virtual Data Room Review What to Look for in a Data Room uk Provider Document Storage and Distribution Software Everything About VDRs Corporate Software Advantages How to Choose a Virtual Data Room Provider The Most Secure Way to Transfer Files How to Manage Online Board Meetings Benefits Virtual Data Room Solutions – Must-Haves for M&A and Due Diligence Best Data Room Functions for the Different Types of Industries How to Choose a VDR Software Provider How to Choose an Online Board Portal The Benefits of a Boardroom Review Board Room Online Solutions – How to Get the Most Out of Your Board Meetings Why You Need a Board Room How a Board Room Blog Can Transform Your Business Choosing the Best Board Room Format How to Have Productive and Engaging Board Directors Meetings Choosing the Right Virtual Data Room How to Keep Safe Documents Storage Teaching Kids About Online Safety Avoid Costly Mistakes With Free Data Room Services Corporate Virtual Data Secure Online Data Rooms Solutions How to Keep Share, Edit and Delete Your Data Safe Virtual Data Room Software Secrets for M&A Due Diligence What to Look For in Boardroom Providers Board of Directors Blog Posts How to Deliver Value at Your Board Meetings How to Have Effective Board Meetings Responsibilities of Board Members Deal Management – How to Effectively Manage a Complex Sales Pipeline Data Rooms For Mergers And Acquisitions How to Have a Successful Board Room Meeting Choosing a Board Room Service Provider What is a Board Room Service? Board Room Software Review – Choosing the Best Portal for Mother Board Meetings Why a Board Room Providers Review Is Important What Is a Board Room Review? Venture Software for VC Firms What Is an Assessment Report? The Importance of a Tech Audit Popular Business Applications What to Look For in a Data Room App What Are Business Applications? How to Choose a Virtual Data Room How to Plan a Data Room Review Coronavirus Guide What is a Virtual Data Room? What Is Data Science? What Is an Operating System? Turbotax Small Business Review How Online VDRs Are Used in M&A Deals Why Choose VDR Software? The Power of Business Software The Benefits of a Software Board Online Data Room Review The Importance of Tech Knowledge Improving Accuracy of Financial Data Online Business Records – How to Keep Your Online Business Records Accurate and Secure What is a Board Portal De? DealRoom Review – A Review of VDR Software M&A Due Diligence for Private Companies The Virtual Data Room Review Why Companies Use a Data Room Review to Facilitate M&A Transactions The Best File Sharing Services How Online VDRs Are Used in M&A Deals Best Virtual Data Room How to Choose a Best Board Room Provider Choosing a Data Room for Due Diligence What Is a Data Room Business Software? Best Data Room Providers Review Data Room Providers Review Mostbet Tr Resmî Web Sitesinde Giriş Ve Kayıt Olm Kumar Oynamak Için En Iyi Yerdir The Benefits of Cloud Data Services for Enterprises Online Data Room and SSL How to Build a Diverse Board of Directors Best Virtual Data Review A Data Room Service Review How Runn Makes Project Data Accessible, Accurate and Shareable Five Pillars of Information Protection The Importance of Online Business Reports Benefits of Colocation Services Virtual Data Rooms Guide Choosing a Business Virtual Data Room Choosing the Right VDR Service Review How to Conduct a Virtual Data Room Review Glory Online Casino Türkiye En Iyi Oyunları Ve Bahisleri Olan Kumarhane Mostbet Casino On-line Em Pt 2024 ️ Bónus As Well As Revisão

Technology

Union Square Ventures is investing in crypto for the long haul, but won’t start a dedicated fund

Union Square Ventures has big plans to profit on a potential trillion-dollar business in blockchain and crypto in 10 years. But those plans won’t include starting a separate fund, according to a top executive.

“We’re not planning to do it,” Albert Wenger, managing partner at Union Square Ventures told CNBC. “We see a lot of upside to keeping it under the same roof.”

The New York- based venture capital firm, named after its 19th-floor office on Broadway just blocks from Union Square, has announced a number of crypto investments, including well-known U.S. exchange Coinbase. Wenger said those companies can learn from non-blockchain companies, and vice versa.

On Monday, competing venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced its first-ever fund dedicated to crypto companies. Executives told CNBC that it’s an “all-weather” fund that they plan to invest over time, regardless of market conditions.

Union Square Ventures, like its West-coast peer, is taking a long-term view of the space despite worsening bear market in cryptocurrency. The firm is focusing investments on what Wenger called the “foundational plumbing” stage. For the most part, it’s putting money in the technology supporting applications, instead of the apps or use cases themselves.

“Investors are rationally pouring a lot of money into this sector, because I think people are seeing the winning blockchain here might be worth a trillion, or a couple of trillion dollars,” Wenger said. “It’s not at all crazy to think that.”

Wenger echoed Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who said this week that blockchain could be a bubble, with companies going belly-up at the same rate as the dotcom era. But he said that risk could pay off for investors who get in early, and spread their bets.

“Certainly, for any one particular project there’s an extremely high chance it won’t work,” Wenger said. “As a result, if it works, the rewards will be very high.”

The shakeout at least for initial coin offerings, or ICOs, has already begun. More than 1,000 crypto projects that raised money through an ICO have failed this year, according to website Coinopsy. Those failed coins and multiple scams, which caught the attention of regulators this year, have cast a cloud on the entire industry, Wenger said.

“You’ve had a series of ICOs where investors have purchased at steep discounts — the second it starts trading those investors cash out, they make a handsome return, and someone else is left to hold the bag,” he said.

While Wenger said token offerings are an “innovative new financing mechanism,” he maintained that the method isn’t right for every blockchain project, just like a public stock offering isn’t right for every company.

ICOs raised $6.6 billion in 2017 and have hit $9.1 billion this year, according to research firm Autonomous Next. A Cayman Islands start-up notably raised $4 billion, eclipsing the world’s biggest initial public offerings on stock exchanges this year. But the total a project raises might not really matter, according to Wenger.

“The amount you’ve raised in an ICO or in a traditional way in this space is not going to turn out to be a great predictor of success,” he said. “Very interesting projects are also being pulled off on a lot, lot, lot less money.”

Wenger, who holds a Ph.D. in information technology from MIT, personally owns bitcoin but says he is acutely aware of the risks to retail investors. The cryptocurrency, which Union Square Ventures also invested in, has fallen nearly 60 percent this year after a meteoric rise to nearly $20,000 last year.

“I don’t think you should be in the space and say ‘I’m only going to hold bitcoin,’” he said. “At the moment, this whole space is a high risk space, and I don’t think anybody should be investing all of their life savings.”

As far as the entire sector failing, Wenger said there’s a chance but it’s “a pretty small chance.”

“The stuff that actually works will float to the top,” he said. “It might take a while, but time will tell.”

Source: Tech CNBC
Union Square Ventures is investing in crypto for the long haul, but won’t start a dedicated fund

Comments are closed.