IOSG Partners Founder's Conference Takeaway: Projects and VCs Are Nearly Out of Cash—Token 2049 Is the Last Hope for Fundraising
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IOSG Partners Founder's Conference Takeaway: Projects and VCs Are Nearly Out of Cash—Token 2049 Is the Last Hope for Fundraising
Go experience the crypto-native power of the developer community, and find your own place in the industry where you can shine and create.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Jocy, Founder of IOSG
The industry continues to grow in scale. This year, I've attended various events including ETHDenver, ETHCC, Montenegro's Zuzalu, and Edcon. At this year’s 2049, I still ran into many old friends. In fact, each of these conferences draws a massive number of participants from the industry. Many companies have allocated dedicated budgets for attending such events, so even during bear markets, attendance numbers continue to climb as the overall industry expands.
Limited partners (LPs) continue supporting early-stage VCs growing within the ecosystem; these VCs keep backing founding teams in emerging sectors, and those teams keep scaling up—seemingly everything is moving in a positive direction. But reality is different. For many teams, this 2049 event may be among their last few chances to raise funds. If the bear market doesn’t end soon, this might be their final opportunity to gain visibility. Most early-stage teams expanded aggressively over the past two years, exhausting their runway. Some teams have extremely high burn rates and now only have five to ten months left—even resorting to purchasing expensive 2049 tickets or sponsor booths just to pitch potential investors.
At an exclusive event hosted by the Medici family that I attended, about half of the 120 attendees were VCs. Among those 60 VCs, roughly 90% are currently fundraising. Due to increasing regulatory pressure in the U.S., raising capital has become extremely difficult. Relying on their brand and influence, they hope Asian Chinese LPs will be more generous in supporting them.
However, contrary to the bustling atmosphere at 2049, most crypto-focused LPs have tightened their belts due to the bear market, while traditional LPs are increasingly skeptical about the industry’s value propositions and use cases. Therefore, expecting to secure funding by meeting the right VC or LP at a single conference is unrealistic. Clearly, the bear market will persist for some time. Now is when founders must demonstrate adaptability, patience, and resilience. Just like in the previous bear cycle, many founders held on until March 2020, only to lose hope when Bitcoin hit $3,000 and eventually disbanded their teams. Yet three months later, DeFi Summer exploded, bringing new life to the crypto industry and offering professionals a glimpse of unprecedented dawn.
Unlike previous years, this year’s 2049 felt less commercial. Global VCs and founders were invited to numerous side events, making Singapore that week full of crypto practitioners aside from Formula 1 spectators. My usual routine during blockchain weeks involves scheduling daytime coffee catch-ups with founders we’ve previously backed, followed by attending interesting evening events and reconnecting with old friends (typically leading to a schedule of staying up past 1 a.m. and waking up at 7 or 8 a.m. for back-to-back meetings).
From IOSG’s perspective, our focus this year remains consistent with our strategy over the past two years: doing everything possible to provide a professional academic platform to help our portfolio companies enter the market, enabling more industry participants to discover, recognize, and engage with them.
Academics and networking don't conflict—we usually separate them into two distinct zones. Those who enjoy learning can stay inside the presentation area, quietly taking notes during talks and panel discussions, while social butterflies can rotate through OFR’s thousands of attendees, exchanging Telegram handles and chatting with old friends.
It feels somewhat odd to focus on new themes at 2049, since builders and developers rarely attend such events. These gatherings mainly serve as stages for capital connections. Capital power drives industry progress—we’ve seen Layer 2 projects engage in a $2 billion valuation arms race, with zkEVMs holding hundreds of millions in cash rapidly advancing technologically, aggressively hiring talent, launching mainnets, and investing heavily in application ecosystems, even during a bear market, drawing top talent into the space.
Additionally, on the AI front, at our recent IOSG OFR event in France two months ago, we invited over 20 related founders to share insights. This sector has already become a high-conviction, aggressive bet for most U.S. crypto funds. Modular Labs received over 14 term sheets during the bear market, Gensyn’s valuation surpassed $400 million, and ChainML completed two rounds of financing within six months.
Looking at this year’s OFR event themes, we focused on protocol security audits, ZKML and generative AI, LSD, and modular infrastructure. Upcoming at DevConnect in Turkey, we’ll invite founders building applications and FOG solutions—application development on L2s is clearly becoming an inevitable trend for innovation. We eagerly await these outstanding founders continuing to solve real-world application challenges in the industry.
I ended up writing more than intended. Honestly, I believe most readers of this kind of summary are likely observers or onlookers—most active industry participants are already deeply involved. So my advice to those still reading: treat your next event as a trip. Go experience the native strength of developer communities firsthand. Find where you can shine and contribute in this industry—create it yourself, rather than waiting for the next bull market.
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