Interview with Polygon Ventures' Sachi: The crypto market is currently overly focused on infrastructure rather than consumer applications
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Interview with Polygon Ventures' Sachi: The crypto market is currently overly focused on infrastructure rather than consumer applications
Cryptocurrency is a global asset, and Sachi is a true global citizen.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Marco Manoppo
Compiled by: TechFlow
Sachi has an extremely diverse background.
She graduated from Caltech with a degree in electrical engineering and began her career at Mitsubishi in Japan, later transitioning into more finance-centric roles. Soon after, Sachi worked as an economic analyst at the International Monetary Fund and served as an associate at Bank of America.
Cryptocurrency is a global asset, and Sachi is truly a global citizen. She has lived in four different countries across four regions. Today, Sachi is part of the Polygon Ventures team, leading its $100 million ecosystem fund focused on advancing the development of the Polygon blockchain.
Key Takeaways:
-
U.S. entrepreneurs need to remain flexible about relocation due to the evolving regulatory environment. Dubai is a strong option.
-
Teams and investors in Asia are seeing increased deal flow activity.
-
Real-world assets (RWA) represent an exciting frontier, but require a genuinely "crypto-native" approach to solving KYC challenges.
-
Currently, crypto focuses too heavily on infrastructure while neglecting consumer adoption.
-
The market dominance of Tether and Binance poses the greatest risk to the cryptocurrency industry.
What defining moment led you to enter the crypto industry?
Sachi was introduced to Sandeep through a mutual friend who was already working in crypto. At that time, Polygon was still known as Matic and hadn't even launched on Coinbase yet.
Early conversations with Sandeep convinced her to join the space. He used an analogy to explain the potential of crypto technology: Ethereum would function like replacing centralized institutions such as central banks, while Bitcoin would serve as a digital gold value layer.
Observing the industry's growth, Sachi recognized the immense opportunities in crypto—both in terms of technological potential and career advancement. In traditional banking, age often becomes a limiting factor regardless of how hard one works.
Ultimately, Sachi decided to join Polygon. Initially, her role wasn't clearly defined, but Polygon was improving its investment approach toward projects to grow its ecosystem. Sachi joined to help build a due diligence framework, evaluate potential investments, and establish an Investment Committee (IC) for the ecosystem fund.
How does your international background benefit you in crypto?
Having a diverse background is definitely helpful.
As a truly global asset class, you work with people from all over the world. Naturally, understanding how different cultures operate becomes essential. When closing deals, this also means having strong awareness of cultural etiquette and negotiation styles. For example, Sachi’s background helped her close deals with Japanese crypto projects.
You were a credit trader—how did that experience shape your perspective on crypto?
Simply put, Sachi analyzed large bank bonds and determined appropriate yield levels. This experience gave her solid insight into how traditional finance operates, which proves highly valuable when understanding DeFi mechanisms in crypto.
Much of what's done in DeFi merely replicates concepts from traditional finance (TradFi). However, many DeFi participants are often unfamiliar with the system, especially regarding risk management. Pricing options, creating proper swap markets, and other financial technicalities are sometimes still poorly executed.
What role do you see emerging markets (EMs) playing in crypto?
Crypto is particularly important for emerging markets facing inflation issues, such as Venezuela or Argentina. These countries truly understand the value of crypto and, compared to developed markets where access to USD is easier, EMs hold greater potential for driving mass crypto adoption.
Which regions are currently seeing the most active deal-making?
There are still deals happening in the U.S., but Sachi sees significantly more activity in Asia. Recently, there’s been broader engagement from Asian projects and funds. Partly because U.S. funds over-allocated during the bull market, they now lack deployable capital. Asian investors tend to be more opportunistic and generally avoid investing at high valuations. With valuations lower now, they’re more willing to allocate.
Additionally, there are simply more projects originating from Asia due to lower political risks.
What strategic steps can founders take to navigate the current regulatory landscape?
Founders should remain flexible and open-minded. Given the evolving regulatory environment in the U.S., founders may—at least in the short term—need to consider relocation possibilities.
Many countries are becoming more welcoming to crypto. Dubai stands out as a region with significant potential. In an interview with CZ, he mentioned that the area genuinely wants to welcome crypto businesses and entrepreneurs with appropriate regulation. Founders might consider moving their operations there.
How was Polygon’s experience raising $450 million?
An investor (name redacted) suggested to Sandeep that he should raise funds for Polygon. One key reason was that other L1 competitors had just completed major funding rounds.
Initially, Sandeep wasn’t enthusiastic about fundraising since Polygon still had ample capital. But he later realized the strategic value of having reputable institutional investors on board.
Key lesson: Once investor commitments are secured, close the deal quickly. Especially in crypto—a field with high volatility where tech development cycles are tied to real dollar values. When markets turn downward, investor sentiment can shift dramatically, and commitments aren’t always guaranteed. Timing also matters. Polygon raised its funds at the right time—late 2021 to early 2022.
What are Polygon Ventures’ current investment themes?
Polygon Ventures is currently focused on infrastructure projects such as staking, zero-knowledge technology (ZK-tech), and real-world assets (RWAs). Identifying the next big trend in crypto remains challenging, but as macro conditions improve, consumer-facing applications—like gaming—are likely to see a strong rebound.
How to handle RWA compliance?
While RWAs are exciting, it remains to be seen how much decentralization must be compromised to support institutional adoption.
In traditional finance (TradFi), Know Your Customer (KYC) is crucial. In crypto, there’s currently no effective native way to conduct KYC. Perhaps Coinbase’s Base could become an attempt to perform KYC for individual users at the chain level.
Polygon is also developing Polygon ID, a system using zero-knowledge technology to verify identity without fully disclosing personal information.
Thoughts on the crackdown against Binance?
In the long run, the actions against Binance are beneficial for the crypto industry. Over the past few years, Binance held too much power—every project seeking success needed to be listed there. Other exchanges need the opportunity to catch up in market share to prevent excessive monopolization and liquidity concentration.
Quickfire Questions:
-
What Web3 game are you most excited about right now?
My Pet Hooligan.
-
What contrarian view do you hold in today’s crypto landscape?
We focus too much on infrastructure and overlook consumer adoption.
-
What is the biggest risk facing the crypto industry?
USDT depegging or regulatory action related to Binance.
-
What is the most underappreciated application in crypto?
NFT tickets—for using NFTs to gain entry into clubs.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
@launchy_
