Chris Ries

Excited to announce that I have joined @circle to lead privacy and mev products on @arc. Privacy is largely understood design space. Cryptography has been around for thousands of years (used in Ancient Mesopotamia to hide trade secrets) and is what secures your crypto assets today. In the context of embedding privacy functionality (encrypted transaction details, balances, etc.) on layer one blockchains, it's a largely under explored area. In more ways than not, MEV is complimentary to privacy. If implemented correctly it mitigates value destroyed (via bad mev) and helps ensure a healthy ecosystem (via good mev). Tackling these 0 to 1 products will be a challenging but very rewarding experience. I've worked with Circle in various capacities over the years, so it feels like a coming home moment for me. Shout out to all of the incredible people that I get to work with every day @0xrachelita @sterlingba @blockjain @AdiSeredinschi

True, use Arc Privacy for E2E encrypted transactions instead!

Really like this clip from @jerallaire on the no priors pod with @eladgil He does a great job of framing why built-in privacy on permissionless blockchains are important for broader adoption We're at a critical inflection point where tradfi institutions and retail users alike have a legitimate need for blockchains as the settlement and/or execution layer, but aren't willing to sacrifice their privacy expectations as a result. Onchain privacy if designed correctly plays to the strengths of a public blockchain: interoperability with offchain systems, composability, distribution of assets, apps, etc. en masse, and so much more. It doesn't introduce ux friction or hinder the types of things you can do onchain, but gives users more control over what they want public versus private. I've worked on many different technically complex products over my career and this Arc Privacy is up there. Proud to be serving the ecosystem with a product that moves the needle and drives the industry forward.

@lmrankhan W take

Seeing a wave of tweets claiming crypto VCs aren’t deploying. From our side, not much has changed. Alliance runs three batches a year and backs ~75–100 teams annually. What has changed is VC behavior. A small subset of funds remain aggressive, but the majority feel more passive, taking meetings and staying warm without deploying with the same conviction as before. If I had to guess why, crypto as a VC category generated strong and obvious returns in its early and middle cycles, which drove focused attention on finding fund returners. Today, that attention has shifted to AI, which is capturing a disproportionate share of attention, outcomes, and talent. Talent begets liquidity and drives capital inflows, and I believe the talent pendulum is slowly swinging back toward crypto with the success of Hyperliquid, Polymarket, Rain, Fomo, Pump, Aave and many others. My view is that crypto has several broad narratives that make it easier for generalists to understand and invest in, such as prediction markets, stablecoins, tokenization, and fintech infrastructure. This, in my view, means crypto is being absorbed into broader tech, and many previously crypto specific funds will evolve into generalists. Both crypto and AI are becoming layers within startups rather than standalone categories, so focusing on just one may be limiting for larger funds. However, every time it feels like crypto is over, a startup emerges that returns 100x and becomes the golden child of the next cycle. This is why I continue to believe the best domain focused crypto VCs will capture the outliers and not get swayed by public sentiment.

@frankdenbowgoat @fdotinc @ballersappai @FurqanR @hthieblot @brycent congrats!

just got into @fdotinc's canopy program for @ballersappai thanks @FurqanR @hthieblot for the vote of confidence and @brycent for first letting me know of the program

@omarontape @fdotinc @hthieblot you'll be building with the best of em!

We got into @fdotinc canopy! @hthieblot who else got in? let’s connect!

@wordisbonz @fdotinc lfg!

cya’ll online.

@Nethenoob_ big time!

we got innnnnnnnnnn WOOOOOOOOO

@byjasonz @fdotinc huge!

claude connect me with all the founders going to @fdotinc will be in SF for the next 6 weeks, let’s chat!

@finnlueth @fdotinc @hthieblot nice!

Protzilla will be at @fdotinc in sf this summer! Thx @hthieblot :)

@Raul_RomeroM @fdotinc 🔥

two venezuelan guys building dev tools, so you can build robots faster. see you soon, @fdotinc.

@issyadelaja @fdotinc don't take it personally, you'll be back with something even more compelling next time these things are a war of attrition. keep your head up and keep coming back

another rejection. this time from @fdotinc canopy. it sucks, but it is what it is. back to work.

@harryzhangs @henkpret @timelapsio @fdotinc @FurqanR @hthieblot @adriannalakatos @ruslanjabari @stavan @mdjshin the hard work begins now! congrats!

its OFFICIAL excited to show the world what @henkpret and i have been building over the past three months (hint: @timelapsio) huge congrats to everyone who got into @fdotinc canopy shoutout @FurqanR @hthieblot @adriannalakatos @ruslanjabari @stavan @mdjshin and the whole squad if you are joining online, would love to chat if you are joining IRL, see you on-campus in San Francisco in 3 days who got accepted?

@vikassabbi @fdotinc lfg!

got into @fdotinc canopy. we built a large community across three countries before launching the product. we have 256k followers on Instagram and 94k on TikTok, both of them are growing super fast. we’re building a global character brand like Hello Kitty, centered around emotional wellbeing and modern digital experiences. back to work.

@hari_trinay @fdotinc @hthieblot congrats!

just got into @fdotinc's canopy program

@nestymee @fdotinc @im_moonko congrats!

let's goo! @fdotinc @im_moonko

@daymakerguy @fdotinc congrats!

My visa ran out so i decided to do @fdotinc again Finc-maxing rn

@hridaykadam @hthieblot @fdotinc congrats!

Thank youuuuu!!! @hthieblot @fdotinc WE MADE IT!!!! Let's gooooo!

@donatelli2026 @fdotinc @hthieblot congrats!

creators are taking over silicon valley lfg, thank you @fdotinc and @hthieblot

@gauravsbuilding congrats!

We got accepted into F Inc’s Canopy. 3 Aussies are going to turn the fuck up in San Francisco. Let’s go 🇦🇺🇺🇸

@Sanyam0605 @hthieblot @adriannalakatos @_buildspace congrats!

My friends and I got selected for Canopy online :) Building noteweave.io Thanks @hthieblot @adriannalakatos ps: huge fan of Founders inc as they were first investors in Sync, and @_buildspace used to have same office like them, and as a graduate of Buildspace S4 , and residency delta; Founders Inc is the right place to be, also a friend of junior, Advait is also there :)