Hashed Research
Investment Thesis
Hashed is a Seoul-founded, globally distributed venture capital firm investing at the frontier of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and AI. Founded in 2017 by CEO Simon Seojoon Kim, the firm's stated mission is to "back founders building the next paradigm in AI, Crypto and frontier tech." Hashed positions itself as more than a check-writer: it describes its role as a "second team" for founders, offering ecosystem support, community access, and operational help so portfolio teams can focus on growth. The firm's public thesis emphasizes decentralization, user ownership, and open financial infrastructure, and it backs teams across the full technology stack, from base-layer protocols and scaling infrastructure to consumer-facing Web3 applications.
Sector Focus
Hashed's portfolio spans blockchain infrastructure and Layer-1/Layer-2 protocols (Aptos, NEAR, Cosmos, Klaytn, Taiko, Berachain, Story Protocol, Rialo), DeFi and financial primitives (dYdX, Synthetix, Kyber Network, Linear Finance, Ethena), gaming and digital assets (Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, League of Kingdoms, Mythical Games, Gomble Games), consumer Web3 applications and wallets (Backpack, Worldcoin, Krystal), and a smaller cluster of Korean consumer and fintech startups (PayHere, PortOne, Stockal, GreenLabs). The firm explicitly frames its focus as "frontier technology" rather than any single vertical, with AI increasingly appearing alongside crypto in its recent public writing (e.g., "Redefining Payment for the AI Era: The x402 Protocol" and "Could AI Shopping Agents Replace Amazon and Google?").
Stage Focus
Hashed describes itself as a "global, early stage venture fund," and its public deal write-ups (Taiko, Rialo) show it engaging at the earliest stages of protocol development, in Rialo's case investing before the team had a live devnet. This points to a Pre-Seed/Seed orientation, with selective follow-on support for portfolio companies as they scale.
Check Size
No specific check-size range is published on the firm's site or in available press coverage; typical early-stage crypto-fund check sizes were not independently confirmable and have been left unset rather than guessed.
Lead Tendency
Evidence is mixed: Hashed explicitly describes itself as "the lead investor" in Taiko's 2024 round, but its broader portfolio (150+ companies, many base-layer protocols) suggests a mix of leading and participating positions depending on the deal.
Recent Activity
Hashed has been active through 2025, including a follow-on institutional relationship: in June 2025, SMBC Nikko Securities (a Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group subsidiary) made a strategic investment into Hashed Venture Fund III via its Nikko Open Innovation Lab, extending a fund lineage that began with a $120M fund in 2020 and a $200M Fund II in 2021. In August 2025, Hashed announced its investment in Rialo (built by Subzero Labs), a blockchain designed to let smart contracts call real-world APIs and webhooks directly. The firm continues to publish investment theses and market commentary via its Medium page (medium.com/hashed-official) on topics spanning stablecoins, Bitcoin cycles, AI x crypto convergence, and on-chain identity.
Portfolio Highlights
Hashed's portfolio includes some of the highest-profile names in crypto: Axie Infinity and Ronin (Sky Mavis), The Sandbox, Yuga Labs, Worldcoin, Aptos, NEAR, Cosmos, dYdX, Synthetix, and Decentraland. Korean-market portfolio companies include GreenLabs (agritech), Comento (edtech), and several fintech and consumer apps. The firm also operates ecosystem subsidiaries that appear alongside its investment portfolio, including Hashed Emergent (emerging-markets venture building), UNOPND (Web3 incubation), Factomind (data/market intelligence), ShardLab (fintech x crypto R&D), KODA (institutional custody), and Hashed Open Research (policy and regulation research).
Team
Hashed operates with a large, multi-office team spanning investment, legal, finance, and operations functions across Seoul, San Francisco, Singapore, Bengaluru, and Abu Dhabi:
- Simon Seojoon Kim — CEO & Managing Partner; serial entrepreneur, leading blockchain evangelist and policy advisor
- Ryan Sungho Kim — Cofounder & Partner; former engineer/CTO, focuses on investments in Asia
- Ethan Kyuntae Kim — Cofounder & Partner; former founding engineer at a Korean mobile messenger acquired by SK, focuses on gaming/esports/content and digital assets
- Sean Hong — CFO & Partner; previously at Paratus Investment and KIS Pricing (Moody's Korea affiliate)
- Baek Kim — Partner; former AWS software engineer, last-mile logistics founder
- Edward Hong — CPO & Partner; former performance-marketing manager and startup founder
- SJ Baek — Principal; formerly strategic investments at Tencent and venture investing at SoftBank Ventures Asia
- Edward Tan — Senior Associate; formerly TradFi real-estate private equity in Singapore, focuses on crypto investments and portfolio research
- Dan Park — Senior Associate; specializes in Asian consumer apps
- Gary Rhee — Head of Portfolio Management
- Wooster Han — Head of Communications
- Tak Lee — Venture Partner; focuses on India and other emerging markets
Decision Process
Hashed's scale (a multi-partner investment team plus dedicated legal, finance, and portfolio-management staff) points to a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo-GP model.
Founder Preferences
Hashed's own writing on portfolio companies (e.g., Rialo/Subzero Labs) highlights a pattern of backing technically deep founding teams with prior experience at large-scale technology companies (Meta/Diem, Mysten/Sui, Google, Netflix in Rialo's case) who are pursuing structurally ambitious, non-incremental technical bets, sometimes ahead of full proof of the technology.
Geographic Focus
Hashed is explicitly global with a South Korea/Asia core: it maintains offices in Seoul, Singapore, Bengaluru, San Francisco, and Abu Dhabi, and describes itself as connecting "the key regions of the technology supply chain." Hashed Emergent extends this further into emerging markets, particularly India and Southeast Asia.