South Korea’s Leading Crypto Venture Made 29 Investments in 2023, Allocating $28.44 Million in Total

Hashed, South Korea’s largest crypto venture, has invested 36.8 billion won ($28.44 million) in blockchain projects this year. 

Despite the challenges faced during the prolonged crypto winter, Hashed successfully forged numerous new investments in blockchain infrastructure and gaming projects throughout the year, according to a recent report from Econovill.

The focus was primarily on early-stage ventures with the potential to attract more users by enhancing blockchain infrastructure and integrating content and intellectual property rights (IP).

In total, Hashed made 29 investments, with a relatively equal distribution across sectors. 

Blockchain infrastructure, games, and finance each accounted for 21% of the investments, while IP and content-related startups received 15% of the allocations. 

Additionally, Hashed invested in a diverse range of early-stage startups capable of leveraging blockchain infrastructure in various fields such as O2O platforms, sharing economy initiatives, and artificial intelligence startups. 

Geographically, Korea held the largest share at 38%, followed by North America at 21%, Europe at 7%, and other Asian regions including Singapore at 34%.

Hashed Invests in 20 New Crypto Companies

Among the investments were 20 new companies, mostly early-stage startups ranging from seed to Series A stages. These included Radius, a shared sequencing layer developer, Decentralized Gaming Ventures (DGV), a web 3.0 game venture studio, Another Ball, the operator of the Virtuber platform Izumo, and DeLabs, a Web3 gaming studio.Furthermore, there were nine follow-up investments in companies such as Archway, a Cosmos-based DApp developer compensation layer-1 project, Payhere, a mobile-based POS platform, and DFNS, a decentralized API solution for digital asset custody.Hashed currently manages two funds, which include the first fund worth 120 billion won and the second fund worth 240 billion won through Hashed Ventures. Through these funds, Hashed invests in numerous domestic and foreign startups, actively engaging in resource activities to foster the development of a Web 3 ecosystem.The total portfolio of companies invested in through funds 1 and 2 amounts to 86. As of Fund 2, the proportion invested in domestic companies stands at 55%, and several portfolio companies have demonstrated notable performance throughout the year. Aptos, a layer 1 blockchain, has consistently achieved over 20,000 transactions per second (TPS) with 7.3 million active wallets. Story Protocol, which attracted follow-up investments from leading global investors like a16z, successfully hosted its first hackathon and launched the alpha version of its product.Dune, an on-chain data analysis platform, maintains its leading position in the market, while decentralized exchange dYdX recorded the highest trading volume among decentralized exchanges and effectively transitioned to its own app chain, enabling decentralized governance.

Hashed Supports Web3 Through More Initiatives

In addition to investments, Hashed actively contributes to the Web3 ecosystem through various initiatives. The company has supported approximately 80 meetings, including hackathons for college students, and provided assistance for blockchain conferences. Co-hosted with FactBlock, Korea Blockchain Week has solidified its position as one of the largest blockchain events in Asia, attracting over 10,000 participants. Hashed’s Protocol Camp, a Web3 builder boot camp, has successfully completed five batches with a total of 59 graduates. Hashed Open Research (HOR), a policy think tank, engages in research and policy proposal activities, publishing regular reports and organizing seminars.