The number of funds closed has increased, too (17 in 2013 and 106 in 2018).
At that time, a coinsprice oscillated between$5 and $13 throughout the year.
Xu believes those interested in Bitcoins underlying blockchain technology before the asset price took off fall into three categories.
First, the tech enthusiasts who were interested in the code element.
Then, those in finance who figured out they could trade Bitcoin and potentially make money.
Finally, the libertarians who saw the potential of censorship-resistance, decentralization, and a free market for money.
I no longer think blockchains are the most elegant or suited bang out of database.
Xu wants to find viable blockchain solutions which could help the technology achieve mainstream adoption.
Tech convergence
Jamie Burke came across Bitcoin entirely by chance.
But things changed quickly.
Burke says hes been bullish about the underlying potential of decentralized ledgers from the very beginning.
Its basically the survival of the fittest.
We speak to over 100 inbound projects a month and have met over 1500 blockchain startups since our founding.
We definitely dont look at blockchain and cryptocurrency in isolation, he explained.
Sherman Lee, a partner at early stage accelerator program Zeroth AI, agrees.
Lee discovered Bitcoin in 2014.
During the great bull run of 2017, the euphoria was incredible.
Hundreds of teams kept popping up with whitepapers with amazing visions.
As an investor, well, it didnt matter because we started seeing parabolic gains on our investments.
A year later, everything changed.
Thebear market of 2018brought everyone back to reality.
Token prices crashed, leading to projects and companies running out of cash, with many ceasing operations completely.
Many thought cryptocurrency was dead, but not me.
As an engineer, I saw real technology being built by incredibly talented people.
All the scammers and speculators have mostly disappeared.
All the noise is gone.
We now have left only the strongest teams.
These are the ones that will survive, he said.
The ability to self reflect is also valuable.
Two years later, in 2017, Oxford Capital began to seriously explore applied uses of blockchain technology.
Recently Ive been focusing on use-cases revolving around the creation, sharing and management of data in multi-party situations.
it’s possible for you to find situations like this in many sectors, from insurance to personal identity.
Real innovation
Alicia Garabedian alsodiscovered Bitcoin in 2015 when she was working at Morgan Stanley.
Today, Garabedian is looking for real applications, actual enterprise implementation, and consumer adoption.
We are interested in the deep, enabling technology that capitalizes on the potential of blockchain.
But, will investment in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups continue to rise or stagnate?
A clear value proposition and a solid market strategy are also a must.
This is whats really attracting investors and thats unlikely to change.
