Polychain Capital

Polychain Capital is a digital asset investment firm founded by Olaf Carlson-Wee in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, United States. The firm invests in blockchain networks through actively managed portfolios and also takes part in financing related companies. Its regulatory filing entity is Polychain Capital LP, with CRD number 285022 and SEC file number 801-112665.⁠[1][2][3]

In December 2016, Fred WilsonFred WilsonFred Wilson is an American venture capitalist, co-founder and partner of the New York venture firm Union Square Ventures (USV), and earlier co-founder, with Jerry Colonna, of the internet investment firm Flatiron Partners. He has written the blog AVC since 2003, chaired Etsy’s board for many years, and is a director of Coinbase.Open the full entry of Union Square Ventures disclosed that USV had invested in Polychain’s management company and had also committed capital to its fund as a limited partner. An interest in the management company and fund units are investments at different levels.⁠[4]

Coinbase began trading on Nasdaq through a direct listing on April 14, 2021, under the ticker COIN. It opened at $381, which, based on the 261.3 million fully diluted shares reported at the time, implied a valuation of about $99.5 billion. Polychain had participated in its 2018 Series E; public sources do not disclose the number of shares Polychain sold at the listing, the sale price or the proceeds.⁠[16][17]

The $21 million Shipyard Software raised for its exchange Clipper had two parts: a $4 million equity round led by Polychain and $17 million committed by liquidity providers including Polychain. The liquidity capital went into the exchange’s asset pools and cannot all be counted as equity financing of the development company.⁠[18]

BBS Network announced a $1.5 million seed round led by Binance Labs. The announcement listed the general partners of Polychain Capital as participants, using the name “GPs,” and did not confirm that the money came from funds managed by Polychain. BBS Network develops interconnected community discussion platforms.⁠[19]

OpenSea announced its acquisition of digital asset wallet developer Dharma Labs on January 18, 2022. Dharma co-founder Nadav Hollander became OpenSea’s chief technology officer, and the Dharma app was later shut down. The announcement did not disclose the price; valuations mentioned earlier in media reports of the talks cannot be treated as the final consideration.⁠[35]

Consensys announced in February 2022 that it was acquiring the Ethereum wallet MyCrypto, combining its account management and security capabilities with MetaMask. MyCrypto was founded by Taylor Monahan, and the announcement said its 12 employees would join Consensys. No sale proceeds for Polychain were publicly disclosed for the transaction.⁠[36]

Blockchain.com announced the acquisition of Altonomy’s over-the-counter trading and execution business, taking on 26 employees to expand its trading services for institutional clients. The target was Altonomy’s relevant business unit; the public announcement did not describe the deal as an acquisition of all of Altonomy, nor did it disclose the consideration.⁠[37]

Shipyard Software announced the resolution of litigation involving Polychain and other investors. The dispute concerned Clipper’s funding arrangements and capital contribution requirements, and the settlement terms are confidential. The announcement confirmed that the dispute had been resolved and did not disclose any party’s gains, losses or payments.⁠[47]

Terra’s UST lost its dollar peg in May 2022, and the prices of related tokens then fell sharply. On June 13, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Terraform Labs and Do Kwon had agreed to a settlement of more than $4.5 billion; Terraform also agreed to cease operations and distribute assets to investors and creditors through bankruptcy proceedings. These amounts apply to the case as a whole, and public filings do not state Polychain’s actual losses or final recovery.⁠[59]

Sushi Labs acquired Shipyard Software, integrating its trading technology and products such as Clipper and Longship. Shipyard’s announcement said its existing products would continue to operate and its team would work with Sushi; the price was not disclosed.⁠[77]

On October 9, 2026, Olaf Carlson-Wee announced at Network State Conference 2026 that Polychain was leading a new funding round for Network SchoolNetwork SchoolNetwork School is a residential startup community founded in 2024 by Balaji Srinivasan, in which members live on a shared campus while learning technology, working out and working remotely; it is seen as a testbed for his “network state” concept. It was first based in Forest City, Johor, Malaysia, and moved to Astana, Kazakhstan, after its local business licence was revoked in July 2026. It also hosts the annual Network State Conference.Open the full entry, with participation from Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry, Coinbase and Network School founder Balaji SrinivasanBalaji SrinivasanBalaji Srinivasan is an entrepreneur, investor and the author of The Network State, the founder of Network School, and a former chief technology officer of Coinbase and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded Counsyl and 21, along with its successor product Earn.com, was involved in projects such as Coin Center, and has backed companies such as fomo as an angel investor.Open the full entry; the round valued Network School at $2 billion, and the amount raised was not disclosed. In his remarks, Carlson-Wee said Polychain was co-leading the round with those three parties.⁠[81][81][82]

Carlson-Wee said Polychain’s investment strategy does not focus only on incremental improvements but seeks projects that use new business models or technologies to solve problems in different ways; he also said he had known and worked with Balaji for more than ten years.⁠[81][81]

Polychain’s investments include native assets of blockchain networks, corporate equity and related financing instruments. Public records cover areas such as base networks, scaling, cryptography, on-chain trading and lending, payments, data and artificial intelligence. Its regulatory filings also list hedge funds, private equity funds and funds focused on the Celo, DFINITY and Polkadot ecosystems.⁠[1][2]

Corporate equity, token presales, private token sales and providing liquidity to protocols carry different rights and risks. Polychain’s public portfolio job network also posts openings for companies; the job directory, funding announcements and token databases each cover a different scope, and none constitutes a complete record of fund holdings as of any date.⁠[1][83]