CMCC Global, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm, is targeting $300 million in a crypto fund with investors such as billionaire Richard Li, and the Winklevoss twins, co-founders of Gemini Exchange.

Charlie Morris, one of the founders of CMCC, said that a portion of the new crypto fund would be allocated to fast-growing sectors such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“The underlying infrastructure is maturing to the point where we basically can have interesting applications,” Charlie Morris told Bloomberg. 

He adds, “Particularly in DeFi, we’ve seen higher quality teams.”

CMCC Global, a 2016 startup, was one of the early and largest investors in the blockchain platform Solana, investing $1 million in a private token sale in 2018, when it was 20 cents a coin. Solana is now the sixth-largest cryptocurrency, which has reached up to $200. Other blockchain ventures that the Venture capital firm has sponsored include Cosmos and Terra.  

Richard Li and Gemini Trust Co. founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are also investors in CMCC's holding entity, despite the fact that the two founders own a majority share in the venture capital firm.

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A few years ago Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss told Bloomberg that he met the CMCC team while traveling in Asia. He said that the firm's approach motivated him to invest in them.

The VC firm's previous crypto fund was led by Richard Li via Pacific Century Group, and Li is reportedly backing the latest fund as well, other existing investors are expected to jump on board.

CMCC is in the process of obtaining a license from Hong Kong regulators in order to launch a new crypto equity fund. At present, VC's fourth crypto fund has assets under management of nearly US$90 million and will aim to hit US$300 million next year. 

Pavan A

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA