Strobe Ventures

early-stage crypto venture fund based in new york city

[Strobe Ventures @strobefund]

Launching Strobe

[Blockworks @Blockworks]

Strobe will finish deploying its initial $150M by end of year while raising a second fund

https://t.co/OkxIUARAiV

[Strobe Ventures @strobefund]

Last week, we hosted the Strobe Summit in the Catskills.

50+ leaders across digital assets, tradfi, fintech and AI from our portfolio, LP and partner network joined us for two days away from the city.

Between panels and group discussions, plus hikes, hatchet throwing, a @BAXUSco whiskey tasting and s'mores by the campfire, we went deep on policy, macro, the shifting capital allocation landscape, frontier AI and where it meets finance.

Thank you to our incredible speakers, including @giancarloMKTS (former @CFTC Chairman), Cynthia Lo Bessette (@Fidelity), Joe Medioli (@MorganStanley), Nick Cherney (@JHIAdvisors), @itsbhaji (@centrifuge), @Ishanee (@Architect_Fi), Leopoldo Ochoa (Theta Capital),@bhpollack (@HuttCap) and Anand Radhakrishnan (Collective Global), and to everyone who made the trip to unplug with us.

We are excited to continue focusing on the convergence of digital assets, fintech, tradfi and AI.

[winnie @winnielaux]

last week, we hosted @strobefund summit up in the Catskills at scribner's lodge 🍂

blessed with the backdrop of peak fall foliage and high 60s weather in nov (!!), we gathered leaders across digital assets, tradfi, fintech, and AI from our portfolio, LPs, and partner network.

between genuinely intimate (and at times spicy) panels and fun fall activities, we got to go deep on policy, macro, how capital allocation is shifting, and where emerging technologies are converging.

some highlights from the week 👇

[winnie @winnielaux]

almost two years of us starting this thing called @strobefund !! how lucky am I to work with such great humans

@tklocanas @spvenino33 🦋

[Thomas Klocanas @tklocanas]

gm 🗽

last @strobefund Padel Williamsburg roof session with @SkyEcosystem of the season and we've got room for a few more

come join us if you want to meet/catch up with founders and leaders in DeFi, and get some good games in:
https://t.co/OoDUZ2CMdW

[winnie @winnielaux]

one thesis underpinning the @strobefund portfolio: old markets are getting replatformed onchain ⛓️

- brokerage: brokers have long earned from lending out your shares, and most holders see little or none of it. @superformxyz Earn Stocks flips that: NVDA, TSLA & the rest of the mag 7 earn defi yield while enabling users to keep full exposure to the stock.

- compute: AI tokens are still sold like SaaS, on fixed rate plans. but compute is a commodity, and nobody today is purchasing power & electricity on a subscription esque biz model. @Architect_Fi liquid inference is basically an RFQ for tokens: providers compete on price for every prompt and buyers see every quote. one day in, the liquid inference provider network has doubled and it's already cheaper than openrouter on 30+ models.

- banking: every fintech will want its own dollar, but almost none will want to run reserves, redemptions & compliance. @ethena whitelabel enables neobanks to fill that gap. yesterday, we saw how @ether_fi launched etherfi USD, with ethena running everything under the hood

[winnie @winnielaux]

the agent economy runs on tokens & tokens have never had real price discovery. until now.

@Architect_Fi just launched liquid inference (an LLM model router): providers quote in real time, buyers see every price, lowest marginal cost wins each prompt.

inference is becoming a commodity of the agentic economy, and architect is building a new marketplace for it. if you're a developer looking to lower inference costs, check it out below.

[Thomas Klocanas @tklocanas]

this week in @strobefund portfolio:
- @superformxyz Earn Stocks
- @ethena x @EtherFi white label stablecoin
- @Architect_Fi Liquid Inference

and @Ledger Op3n loading for next week 👀

[Kevin Miao @humancapitol]

I've known and worked alongside @tklocanas @spvenino33 and @winnielaux for years. They've taught me that it's damn fun to work with smart people, who are great humans, and do what they say they're going to do.

Excited to have @strobefund in the @tarecredit family. Onwards!

[Thomas Klocanas @tklocanas]

When @humancapitol walked us @strobefund through @tarecredit’s vision, one thing immediately struck us: the scale of the problem and opportunity in what is often seen as boring credit piping, and rarely challenged despite its inefficiencies.

Trillions of dollars evaporate into legacy infrastructure; origination fees, servicing middlemen, fragmented rails. Not because that's the right cost structure, but simply because no one has rebuilt the pipes in decades (spoiler, it’s not easy).

Today, @tarecredit is rebuilding those pipes, obsessing over every little problem in the supply chain today.
Onchain loan infrastructure, AI native servicing, and a direct lending product that proves the model before opening it to the market.

We invested in @tarecredit because we believe the next generation of credit infrastructure won't look like the last one. Tare is a strong signal of what's coming. @humancapitol, @lucasvo, and @keerthimoudgal are the avengers of tokenization, and we’re proud to back them in their journey.

[Strobe Ventures @strobefund]

We’ve had so much fun hosting Strobe Padel for founders, friends, and partners of the firm.

[winnie @winnielaux]

blessed with our first 80 degree day in nyc this year during @strobefund padel.

we’ve been doing strobe padel monthly for our founders and friends. come hang 🦋

[maxime seiler @maxime_sts_]

Big milestone for @stsdigital_io : we’ve closed a $30M strategic round led by @CMT_Digital, with participation from @Payward (@krakenfx ), @strobefund , @Arrington_Cap, @FPrimeCapital and amongst other great investors. 🤝

We chose partners with a rare overlap: crypto-native and deeply grounded in TradFi--who understand how derivatives drive risk management and growth as markets mature. We’re incredibly excited to welcome this strong syndicate aboard as we scale the business to the next chapter.

Most importantly, credit to our team. 4 years of relentless building through cycles--execution, infrastructure, and culture first. We’re just getting started. More soon. 🚀

[The Tie @TheTieIO]

The Push to Tokenize Everything: Which Use Cases Demand It, and Which Clearly Don’t?

Not every asset belongs on-chain. Where does tokenization create real efficiency in liquidity, settlement, and access — and where is it just marketing?

Join:
@admff492 (@sentorahq)
@MariaShen (@ElectricCapital)
@chuck_mounts (@SPGlobal)
@Aryonchain (@CMT_Digital)
@tklocanas (@strobefund)

Spots are limited. Request your ticket: https://t.co/0fG5DiR57w

[winnie @winnielaux]

could not agree more.

we @strobefund have ~ fresh capital ~ to deploy and are more convicted than ever in the opportunities emerging onchain.

regardless of the weekly price action, we are backing founders building net new primitives in this space, and who will hopefully be around for multiple market cycles.

💌 dms are open if you want to chat

[Thomas Klocanas @tklocanas]

We are actively investing with plenty of dry powder in this market and through any bear and bull cycles. Reach out: [email protected].

[Strobe Ventures @strobefund]

https://t.co/Vvb9WMHwBw

[Strobe Ventures @strobefund]

We backed @will_beeson to bridge the $35bn liquidity crisis in tokenization

Read more below on how @multiliquid_xyz will help drive true adoption of digital assets as a critical settlement layer between tokenized assets and stablecoins.

[Strobe Ventures @strobefund]

Two weeks ago, we hosted our inaugural Strobe Summit in New York City. It was an honor to bring everyone in the Strobe orbit together - our founders, LPs, and strategic partners in one room.

We kicked off in true @strobefund fashion with padel, moved through panels spanning stablecoins to tokenized assets, and saw portfolio companies demo new products.

We are grateful for our amazing line up of speakers, some of which include: Kash Razzaghi (Chief Commercial Officer @Circle), @_pgauthier (CEO @Ledger), Cynthia Lo Bessette (Head of @Fidelity Digital Asset Mgmt), @Cmoyall (Partner of Digital Assets, Data & AI at @Apolloglobal), @PaulFrambot (CEO/Co-Founder @Morpho), Maxwell Stein (Director of Digital Assets @BlackRock), Nick Cherney (Head of Innovation at @JanusHenderson), @tyhunnny (Founder/CEO of @TYBXYZ), @PhilGPotter (Managing Partner at Welara, CoFounder of @tether), and our amazing group of LPs and founders who flew in from around the world.

[winnie @winnielaux]

at @strobefund, we continue to be excited about companies that are replatforming industries by building superior products and protocols using emerging technologies.

today, law firms operate off a business model that is inversely related to efficiency - the more time lawyers spend on routine tasks, the more revenue they generate. the fact that a standard seed-stage financing round can rack up $30k-50k in legal fees should not be the norm.

this is why we, alongside @KatieS (@Moxxie), are so excited to be backing @SoxtonAI, which supports early-stage startups in areas like incorporation, fundraising, equity issuance, and compliance checks.

very rarely do we encounter founder archetypes from big law...that is until we met @loganbrown799. she not only is a force of nature, but uniquely understands the tension that early-stage startups face: needing sophisticated legal support while operating under severe budget constraints.

after three years at Cooley working on hundreds of crypto transactions, Logan experienced this dynamic in house. the same legal work that associates were billing $800/hour for sparked what would later become @SoxtonAI.

If you’re an early-stage founder looking to try out Soxton, you can join you can join the waitlist below 👇

[PoLoK @AbrahamPoLoK]

The last few days in New York have made one thing very clear

the future of money is going on-chain and the biggest institutions in the world now agree.

At the @strobefund summit listening to @BNYglobal @WisdomTreePrime and @FireblocksHQ one line really stood out

The world was not made to only run on banking hours stablecoins connect the world together.

That’s exactly what we’ve been saying at @TheBigWhale_ in our reports.
Right now, the biggest challenge is not tech it’s UX. If crypto wants the next billion users things simply need to feel easier.

During a panel with @_pgauthier from @Ledger and @tyhunnny from @TYBXYZ hosted by @fintechfrank Pascal said something every builder needs to hear:

Stop thinking tech first. Think product first.

And he’s right.
Good UX brings people in but we also can’t sacrifice ownership or control. The balance matters.

95% of the stablecoin market on one stage

This morning @Raph_Bloch and I joined a panel with:

@PhilGPotter from @tether

@KashRazzaghi from @circle

As @AriDavidPaul joked that’s basically 95% of the stablecoin market cap sitting together.

Here’s what hit hardest:

1️⃣ Everything is moving on-chain.
Kash expects stablecoin transactions to grow one million times.
Cross-border payments will be instant and almost free.

2️⃣ But speed needs oversight.
Phil warned that trillions moving globally instantly can become a real systemic risk if there’s no governance.

3️⃣ This market will have only a few winners.
Both agreed that without a powerhouse consortium newcomers won’t reach scale.

4️⃣ Tokenized deposits stablecoins.
Banks will focus heavily here something we’ve analyzed deeply at @TheBigWhale_

TradFi is not watching anymore it’s entering the arena

At The Bridge by @TheTieIO every conversation BlackRock VanEck Coinbase WisdomTree S&P Global pointed in the same direction:

Institutions are no longer asking if but how to go on-chain.

Samara Cohen (BlackRock) even said
Bitcoin’s volatility is not a bug it’s a feature.

That tells you exactly how they’re thinking now.

The wall between TradFi and DeFi is disappearing.
And honestly it’s exciting to see.

At @TheBigWhale_ that’s exactly what we work on every day connecting both sides with real market intelligence and bringing leaders together in our Deep Dive events to shape what comes next.

If you’re in this conversation or want to be let’s talk.

[try your best @TYBXYZ]

our ceo @tyhunnny said it best, women belong onchain ✨ @strobefund