Hack VC 2024 Wrapped
By Alex Botte, Partner at Hack VC
2024 was a big year for Hack VC. Our mission is to back hackers at the earliest stages that are building the future of the internet. In this recap, we highlight some of the bets we made in that pursuit, and the work we’ve done to cultivate a community through events, research, open-source code contributions, and more.
Investing at the Cutting Edge
We invested, a lot. We were the second most active lead crypto VC for the year.[1] Despite large-cap markets going up meaningfully last year, dollars going into early-stage financings were still anemic in 2024 (80% off their highs in Q1 2022), and so we felt like there were still great opportunities to back founders at the earliest stages.[2]
We deployed $128M across dozens of deals. We mostly focused on three thesis-driven categories: Crypto x AI, DeFi & FinTech, and Web3 infrastructure.
The rise of AI is something we’re particularly excited about. We’ve been Web2 AI investors since 2017, so when ChatGPT launched and the GenAI revolution started sweeping Web2, we decided it was finally time to invest in the Web3 x AI intersection. It’s grown to become one of our biggest investment themes - we’ve made 12 Crypto x AI investments in the last 2 years, 4 of which became unicorns in 2024.
Many of our investments launched tokens in 2024, including:[3]
- Movement ($7.9B): We co-led the Series A. Movement is creating a network of modular chains based on the Move programming language. The goal is to increase the security, performance, and user experience in web3. Read our investment thesis here.
- Eigenlayer ($4.9B): We were an early investor. Eigenlayer is a shared security and DA network to hyperscale Ethereum.
- Grass ($2.5B): We led the Series A. Grass is a network of over 2.5M personal devices that perform web crawling and scraping to collect large datasets for AI model training. It is already scraping 45TB of data daily - the amount of data ChatGPT 3.5 is trained on. Read our investment thesis here.
- Morpho ($2.4B): Morpho is a lending protocol that creates an open market for risk management and specialized products. We participated in their Series A.
- io.net ($2.2B): We the Series A. io.net is a leading AI-focused DePIN protocol. Like Airbnb but for GPUs, io.net is a decentralized network that allows GPU owners to rent their underutilized GPUs to anyone around the world. Io.net is a true real-world use case of blockchain tech, solving one of the biggest problems in AI - the scarcity and inequity of access to GPUs.
- Kamino ($1.0B): Kamino is the leading Solana-based DeFi lending platform and suite of liquidity vaults. We participated in an early round.
- AltLayer ($0.9B): We co-led the Series A. AltLayer is a protocol for launching modular rollups-as-a-service. AltLayer is working closely with Eigenlayer and building shared services as flagship AVS’, including a shared sequencer and fast finality layer, to enable “restaked rollups” to be launched on Eigenlayer.
- Parcl ($200M): Parcl is a decentralized trading platform for synthetic real estate on Solana.
Looking ahead, we believe 2025 will be remembered as the year the crypto industry truly turned a corner—a year when foundational investments, thoughtful regulation, and technological convergence began shaping the future of a decentralized, interconnected global economy. An economy that we at Hack VC are excited to play a role in building. Read our 2025 investment predictions here.
Events Around the World
Check out pictures from some of our top events that we hosted in 2024. We hope to see you at one of our events in 2025!
Smokey, Co-Founder of Berachain (Hack VC led their Series A), presented at hack.summit() Hong Kong last April where we hosted ~2,000 in-person attendees and another 2,500+ virtually. hack.summit() is one of the world’s leading Web3 programmer conferences and differentiates Hack VC’s platform by helping our portfolio companies reach a large number of potential users, contributors, and talent.
Hack VC Research Partner Chris Maree moderated the Unlocking Cross-Chain Communication and Liquidity panel with Hyperlane and Across (both Hack VC portfolio companies) at our annual summit where we hosted over 100 LPs and portfolio founders.
Our founders' dinner during Devcon was very successful (despite the heavy rain!). We had ~60 people come, including LPs and founding team members from Zero Gravity, PIN AI, Satlayer, Milkyway, AltLayer, Mezo, Semantic Layer, ETHSign, and io.net (all Hack VC portfolio companies).
Content & Research
In 2024 we:
✍️Published 8 research articles
📃Published 6 investment theses
🧑💻Released 1 open-source code library
🎤Appeared on 6 podcasts
Some of our most popular content from the year included:
- Blockworks Podcast | ETH's Modular Bet Will Work: Alex Pack and Alex Botte discussed Ethereum's decision to modularize and its impact on fundamentals, token price, market share, and future adaptability.
- AI x Crypto - Promises and Realities: AI is one of the hottest and most promising categories in crypto markets recently. Decentralized AI training, GPU DePINs, uncensored AI models... are these breakthroughs or just buzzwords? In this research article, Hack VC Managing Partner Ed Roman dissects the top crypto x AI ideas, cutting through the noise to separate promise from reality.
- Potential Solutions to Crypto’s Vesting Problem: High valuation, low initial circulating supply tokens in the current market raise concerns about sustainable returns for public investors due to potential selling pressure from token unlocks. To address this, Hack VC Partner Ro Patel proposes incorporating liquidity- and milestone-based parameters into traditional time-based vesting schedules.
Our content ranges from technical deep-dives to written investment theses to founder interviews. Check it out here.
Growing Our Firm
In early February we announced the close of our $150M venture fund. We raised this fund opportunistically, in a bear market, as a natural extension of our initial $200M seed fund. Collectively, this fund gave Hack VC $350M in aggregate commitments across the firm’s first two funds, and brought our total assets under management to ~$425M. Today, it sits even higher at ~$590M.
We also expanded the team from 19 to 27 last year, bringing in several key hires.[4] Alex Botte, who spent eight years in quant investment management and was most recently at a liquid token fund, joined the firm as a Partner and Global Head of Investor Relations. Shane Barratt, a specialist in convex optimization and one of the largest on-chain MEV traders, joined as a part-time Research Partner. Finally, Peter Hans, who most recently was the Head of Digital Assets Product and Strategy at Fidelity and prior to that was Chief Strategy Officer at Arca, joined as a Partner and Global Head of Business Development.
We continue to grow our team opportunistically and have job postings for the following positions:
If you know of exceptional candidates that live and breathe crypto and have strong networks in the Web3 ecosystem, please send them our way or encourage them to apply here.
Looking ahead to 2025, it’s hard not to be excited. Prices are booming, cutting-edge protocols are launching, and the governments of the free world have never been so supportive of our industry. But our plans are unchanged: do research and meet founders at the frontier of innovation, back the weirdos and the fearless, and help them bring the decentralized Internet from the fringes to the mainstream. If you’d like to join us on our mission - as a founder, researcher, partner, or whatever - you know where to find us.
Footnotes
[1] Source: RootData. Third party analysis was conducted by RootData and provided on December 31, 2024 for the 2024 calendar year time period. No compensation was provided as part of this third party analysis.
[2] Source: Galaxy.
[3] Source: CoinGecko fully diluted value as of January 13, 2025. Fully diluted value is generally price x max supply.
[4] Includes part-time Venture and Research Partners.
Disclosures
The information herein is for general information purposes only and does not, and is not intended to, constitute investment advice and should not be used in the evaluation of any investment decision. Such information should not be relied upon for accounting, legal, tax, business, investment, or other relevant advice. You should consult your own advisers, including your own counsel, for accounting, legal, tax, business, investment, or other relevant advice, including with respect to anything discussed herein.
This post reflects the current opinions of the author(s) and is not made on behalf of Hack VC or its affiliates, including any funds managed by Hack VC, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hack VC, its affiliates, including its general partner affiliates, or any other individuals associated with Hack VC. Certain information contained herein has been obtained from published sources and/or prepared by third parties and in certain cases has not been updated through the date hereof. While such sources are believed to be reliable, neither Hack VC, its affiliates, including its general partner affiliates, or any other individuals associated with Hack VC are making representations as to their accuracy or completeness, and they should not be relied on as such or be the basis for an accounting, legal, tax, business, investment, or other decision. The information herein does not purport to be complete and is subject to change and Hack VC does not have any obligation to update such information or make any notification if such information becomes inaccurate.
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Any forward-looking statements made herein are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by the author(s) in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments, as well as other factors they believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict.