What is DeFiance Capital? All about DeFiance Capital

Introduction to DeFiance Capital Venture Fund

DeFiance Capital is a Venture Capital fund focused on DeFi, Web3, and digital assets, based in Singapore. Established in 2020, DeFiance quickly emerged as one of the leading "crypto-native VCs" in Asia, especially during the boom period of DeFi and NFT.

Unlike many traditional investment funds transitioning to Web3, DeFiance Capital was born from the Crypto market, thus possessing deep, practical insights and being close to the community. With the principle of "research-driven investing", the fund does not invest based on trends, but focuses on projects with solid technological foundations, sustainable financial models, and outstanding founding teams.

In its few years of operation, DeFiance Capital has invested in numerous leading projects such as dYdX, Synthetix, Axie Infinity, Lido, StarkWare, zkSync, LayerZero,… becoming an indispensable name when discussing "smart money" in the global Web3 ecosystem.

• Arthur is not just an investor, but also the creator of the "research-driven investing" mindset in DeFi when deeply analyzing models, cash flows, risks, and long-term potential.
• He frequently shares strategic perspectives, market insights, and trend analyses on X and his personal blog, highly regarded by founders and builders.
• Arthur is also an important bridge between the Web3 community in Asia and international investment funds, especially during the global expansion wave of projects from Southeast Asia.

Currently, DeFiance Capital continues to operate under a flexible model, with Arthur as the core leadership figure. Investment deals and fund strategies are closely tied to Arthur's personal imprint – someone with both academic depth and practical experience closely connected to the Web3 community.

Notable Investment Deals of DeFiance Capital

Overview of Portfolio and Investment Appetite

DeFiance Capital owns a quite high-quality focused portfolio, clearly reflecting an investment style with depth and long-term strategic orientation.

Instead of spreading capital across hundreds of projects in a "spray-and-pray" style, DeFiance focuses on selectively choosing protocols and platforms with infrastructure influence, solid economic models, reliable teams, and global expansion capabilities.

Key Categories:

• DeFi – occupying the largest proportion in the investment portfolio, including lending, DEX, derivatives, yield optimization, etc.
• Layer 1 & Layer 2 – Blockchain platforms with scalability, low fees, and optimization for practical applications.
• Cross-chain & Infrastructure – chain-connecting protocols, data management, zk-rollups, and Web3 development support tools.
• NFT & Gaming – platforms with fresh approaches to tokenizing digital assets and integrating entertainment applications.

Investment Appetite:

• Research-driven: Only investing after in-depth analysis of market, competitors, tokenomics, community, and cash flows.
• Early-stage bias: Prioritizing participation from Seed or Series A rounds to directly influence the project's development model.
• DeFi-native: Focusing on projects that can generate real cash flows, have live products, and sustainable value creation mechanisms.
• Community and Liquidity: Prioritizing projects with loyal user bases, strong on-chain activity, and tokens with natural liquidity through DEX or liquidity mining.
• No chasing hype: Limiting investments in short-term trends like meme coins, copy-cats, or models lacking technological foundations.

Geographically:

Although an Asian fund, DeFiance Capital's portfolio spans globally from the US, Europe to emerging markets like Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, etc. This demonstrates the investment team's global vision and multi-dimensional opportunity capture.

03 Lifetime Investment Deals of DeFiance Capital

Synthetix (SNX)

• First synthetic asset issuance project on Ethereum. DeFiance participated early and witnessed SNX's explosive growth during DeFi Summer 2020.
• SNX Token increased over 200x from seed price.

dYdX (DYDX)

• Currently the leading decentralized derivatives exchange. DeFiance invested early when dYdX had no token and no dedicated chain.
• DYDX is now one of the world's top DEXs by trading volume.

Axie Infinity (AXS)

• Breakthrough NFT game project from Vietnam, DeFiance was one of the first funds supporting Sky Mavis before AXS exploded.
• AXS increased over 1000x and created a global play-to-earn phenomenon.

05 Notable Token-Launched Projects of DeFiance Capital

• Ribbon Finance: DeFi options platform optimizing profits – Successfully raised $40 million USD
• Lido Finance: Largest liquidity staking protocol on Ethereum – Successfully raised ~$73 million USD
• zkSync: Ethereum-expanding Layer 2 using zk-rollup – Successfully raised ~$458 million USD
• LayerZero: Multi-chain messaging protocol for cross-chain applications – Successfully raised ~$261 million USD
• StarkWare: zk-rollup platform building StarkNet – Successfully raised ~$273 million USD

03 Notable Pre-Token Projects of DeFiance Capital

FORDEFI

• Fordefi is an institutional MPC (Multi‑Party Computation) wallet platform, allowing autonomous key management, DeFi transactions, staking, and safe, SOC 2 Type II compliant multi-chain smart contract interactions
• Fordefi raised $28 million (expanded Seed round in 2024) and has an investment relationship with DeFiance Capital

Civitas

• Civitas is a 4X strategy game where players build and govern cities through Sub‑DAO mechanisms. The game integrates NFTs, land assets, and uses Layer‑2 blockchain technology to execute transactions on the Immutable zkEVM network to optimize costs and scalability.
• DeFiance Capital is one of the investors, along with Delphi Digital, 3AC, Framework Ventures... The project raised $20 million from token sale.

Set

• Set Protocol (also known as TokenSets) is a famous decentralized financial protocol that allows creating and managing automatically rebalanced token "baskets", helping users easily deploy on-chain investment strategies
• DeFiance Capital is one of the Series A investors (in 2021) with a capital raise of 14 million dollars out of a total of 16 million dollars raised over 2 rounds

Some achievements and market influences

• One of the representative funds of DeFi Summer 2020, playing a leading role in directing smart money into early-stage DeFi protocols.
• Helped popularize a "research-first" mindset and evaluate projects not just through tokens but through actual cash flow, performance indicators, community, team, and creativity.
• Contributed to connecting Eastern and Western markets in the Web3 ecosystem.
• Arthur Cheong is one of the individuals with strong influence on founders, investors, especially in Southeast Asia.

Summary

DeFiance Capital is a typical representative of the new Web3 investor generation, those with deep expertise, close to the community, and believing in true decentralization. Despite being established recently, the fund has owned an extremely high-quality investment portfolio and has a significant impact on global decentralized financial trends. With strategic vision, sharp project selection ability, and long-term thinking, DeFiance Capital continues to be one of the most notable smart money in the current market.