Why I Joined CoinFund
This past April, I remember sitting in my apartment in New York, jumping into a debate under my anon Twitter account. I was about to have my fifth hour of interviews with Seth Ginns, Managing Partner and Head of Liquid Investments at CoinFund, and members of CoinFund’s Investment Team, before whom I would defend my thesis for a microcap token in the pre-confirmations vertical. It might sound intense, but I was in my element — I had to see if CoinFund was as degen as they said they were.
While I suspected that the microcap token in question was almost too small to make a difference in CoinFund’s liquid token fund, the team’s engagement throughout my pitch suggested a genuine interest in my case. I later found out that one of the team’s recent home runs started off similarly at a smaller portion of the book before graduating into a core holding. I knew then that I could add value to the portfolio.
Three months later, I’m proud to announce that I have joined CoinFund as a Liquid Analyst, where I hope to bring a global perspective and mid cap coverage to our liquid trading strategy. Considering the collision of the influence of my Asian upbringing and my international career path, it feels like I’m right where I am supposed to be.
When my grandparents moved from China to Malaysia in the 1940s, they didn’t have access to traditional banking services because they were undocumented immigrants escaping from the Chinese Civil War, seeking a better life. It wasn’t until my father was born that my paternal family was ‘naturalized’ in Malaysia. While my generation was shielded from the discrimination they faced, based on my background, I certainly experienced the same discriminatory effects throughout my academic and professional life.
It makes sense that when I discovered the meritocratic nature of digital assets, I was immediately drawn to it. DeFi in particular blew my mind — permissionless systems removed the human layer and all the friction that had made it seemingly impossible for my family to accrue meaningful wealth just one generation ago. I witnessed an emerging ecosystem fostered by builders, driven by the notion of rewarding users instead of a centralized entity, and knew I had to be involved in the formation of rails of the new internet. I hope you do not mistake my story as me blindly drinking the Kool-Aid — I have experimented with my fair share of food farms (DeFi circa ’20) in my day and concede that DeFi in its current state is far from achieving its underlying vision. But with legacy systems continuing to disappoint, DeFi is the modern internet’s best effort to improve the status quo in finance. I hope to someday even make my Asian mother proud of her son’s transition away from working at Amazon.
After a two-year stint at Fundstrat writing about DeFi and small-cap long ideas, I wanted to put capital to work and effectively fund the projects and ideals in which I had conviction. When CoinFund reached out to me in the depths of the bear market to discuss a long idea I wrote about Pendle, CoinFund’s conviction felt just as authentic as mine at a time when other funds continued to shrink. I get nothing extra for saying this of course, but Seth’s willingness to spend hours at night and on weekends making sure I understood the opportunity made it a no-brainer for me when deciding my next step. I firmly believe that the chance to learn from him and the rest of our team while amplifying our visibility in Asia (where I spend half my time) is the right one for me.
Apart from general DeFi, lately I’ve been tracking the Base ecosystem and am excited for the onboarding of Coinbase’s 8M monthly transacting users onchain. Coupled with the ease of access for institutions via ETF products, it is an understatement to say that I am optimistic about the future of digital assets. Reach out to me to geek about crypto at walter@coinfund.io — I hear the best relationships are made online.
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Walter Teng is a Senior Liquid Analyst on the Liquid Investments team at CoinFund, deepening the firm’s connectivity in Asia and the US. Prior to CoinFund, Walter served as a liquid investor at MSA Novo, and spent more than two years at FundStrat, most recently acting as Vice President of Digital Asset Strategy where he focused on DeFi and small cap strategies. He holds a Masters of Financial Analysis from London Business School, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts, emphasis Economics.
