Inception Capital

1/ We are delighted to announce the firm’s rebranding from OP Crypto to 🥳 Inception Capital In this X thread, we bring you: 1. What does rebranding mean to us, 2. Recap of 2023: Major events and conferences 3. Looking ahead to 2024: Our goal and exploring new horizons 👇👇👇

CeFi and DeFi are moving closer together. Our founder David Gan joined Cornell Tech’s “The Programmable Economy” conference to discuss stablecoins, tokenization, onchain settlement, and programmable financial markets. The opportunity ahead: infrastructure that institutions can trust and markets can program.

If you’re building, exploring, or looking to connect with the next generation of people shaping digital infrastructure, we’d love to have you join us!

Appreciate the strong interest in our research intern program at @_inceptioncap. We’ve been especially encouraged by the quality of applicants coming from Ivy League and other top universities, with many bringing clear intellectual curiosity, strong writing ability, and genuine interest in venture, emerging markets, AI, deep tech, and crypto. As we move into the next round, we’re continuing to shape this as a highly in-person experience centered in New York. We believe venture is learned best through proximity: being close to the conversations, the decision-making, and the day-to-day pattern recognition that informs real judgment. That’s how we’ve designed the program: to give interns real exposure to research, writing, and founder-facing work inside the firm.

We’re looking for Investment Research Interns at Inception Capital, a New York-based first-check venture firm with a focus on early-stage emerging markets opportunities across crypto, deep tech, AI, and other adjacent verticals. Our internship program has a strong track record: past interns have gone on to join or found leading firms across the industry. In this role, you’ll get hands-on exposure across investment workflows, market analysis, and founder-facing insights — all at the intersection of AI, deep tech, and crypto. You: • Strong interest in Emerging Markets, Crypto, AI, and Frontier Tech • Solid writing skills • Proficient in reading and writing English materials • Ready to conduct quantitative & qualitative research and write high-quality reports • Available for a 3–6 month full-time internship (5 days/week) • New York and SF-based candidates preferred • Remote possible If this is you, apply. Send your most representative research or product work + resume + a cover letter sharing your insights on the most promising sectors/projects in the current market to recruit@inception.capital

For more insights on venture and emerging markets, follow @_inceptioncap! We invest early and share what we’re seeing on the ground across frontier tech.

Full episode in Mandarin: xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episode/695f88…

For more VC and startup insights, follow @_inceptioncap!

“ The number of entrepreneurs is growing exponentially, but the quality divide is stark.” Recently our own @davidgan1818 sat down with @HashKeyGroup’s “Crypto First Principles” podcast, sharing our framework on evaluating early-stage projects. Plenty of signal in this one 👇

4/ How a tokenized oil startup actually takes off Step 1 — Institutional Anchor Before writing code: partner with royalty owners, producers, energy funds, storage operators. Secure legal rights to assets or cash flows. This is the foundation. Step 2 — Legal Structure Asset held inside SPV/trust. Token represents economic claim. Clear redemption/payout rights. Jurisdictional licensing. Without this, VCs will not invest. Step 3 — On-Chain Architecture Token standard (ERC-20/SPL). Proof-of-reserve or proof-of-cashflow oracle. Automated distributions. Compliance modules if required. Step 4 — Launch Narrow Start with one field, one royalty pool, one product. Prove revenue, payout reliability, liquidity. Then expand.

3/ Other models worth watching Tokenized Oil Price Exposure: Instead of physical oil: tokenized ETFs/funds tracking WTI or Brent, on-chain notes referencing oil indices, oil-backed stable units for hedging. Closer to Ondo-style financial engineering than commodity logistics. Tokenized Storage Receipts: Tokens represent ownership of oil already stored in certified facilities. Known quantity, auditable, tradable. Works better for institutions than retail initially. Tokenized Energy Infrastructure: Equity or revenue share in pipelines, storage terminals, refineries, power plants, renewables. Longer-term play — looks like private equity on-chain.

Institutions look at on-chain capital and see one thing: cash flow they can squeeze (credit to @Melt_Dem's most recent article) Wrap it. Hypothecate it. Re-lend it. Charge a fee. They already did with BlackRock's BUIDL and tokenized gold Oil is next. Find our curated findings about tokenized oil below🧵