Meet Andrew Kang: The Face of a Nine-Figure Crypto Fund from Zero to Success
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Meet Andrew Kang: The Face of a Nine-Figure Crypto Fund from Zero to Success
Both the current major bear in crypto and the long-standing representative of crypto capital.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsText: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily
Editor's Note: Recently, Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, made bearish remarks about ETH. Previously, Azuma, a senior writer at Odaily Planet Daily, translated his comments in the article "The Great Ethereum Short Manifesto: ETH/BTC Must Fall for Another Year." While many may not be familiar with him, Kang has deep roots in the crypto industry, having invested in high-quality projects such as Thorchain, Pancakeswap, and Frax Finance—each now worth billions—and achieving significant success in trading. Drawing from insights shared by X user @Atlas, this article by Odaily Planet Daily introduces Andrew Kang for readers' reference.
Recent Views: Limited Upside for ETH, BTC May Hit New Highs in 2025
In today’s uncertain bull-and-bear market, everyone holds different perspectives. However, Andrew Kang (hereinafter referred to as Kang), who wears multiple hats as a venture partner, crypto KOL, and legendary trader, offers views that may carry greater weight.
On June 24, Kang posted on X: "I'm starting to realize this is the first cycle and full bull market many crypto investors have experienced. In this bull run, BTC's multi-day drawdowns have been very limited, staying within 20%. Many seem to have increased leverage during April's last pullback. Yet in the previous cycle, markets frequently saw leveraged liquidations leading to 30%–60% retracements, wiping out hundreds of billions in value. Different cycles follow different paradigms, but when people become too complacent and believe certain events are impossible, disaster often strikes. While I hold a bearish stance, this isn’t me telling you to short the market or sell everything. Be mindful of investment risks. Never bet your entire portfolio on one trade. Having extra capital reserves when facing larger-than-expected volatility is invaluable."
Later, perhaps to avoid being proven wrong or feeling his risk warnings were insufficiently clear, he added: "The current market environment reminds me more of May 2021 than June 2021, let alone December 2020. We've grown accustomed to only upward moves, racing to buy the dip. We went through a major correction from $64K to $45K, yet everyone expected a rebound. But ultimately, the bottom kept falling. We clung to hope—more retail coming in, $40K as strong support, supercycle narratives, etc. The situation today is similar, around 9–10 months after the start of a bull market. Except this time it’s Ethereum ETFs—legendary trader GCR expressed bullishness. I believe GCR is right on a multi-year timeframe: we will see BTC hit new highs in 2025 (though not all altcoins will follow). That doesn't mean the market won’t experience extreme corrections over the next few months. After all, the market humbles every arrogant participant."
On June 23, Kang analyzed the potential market impact of spot Ethereum ETFs, stating that while spot Bitcoin ETFs provided new buyers with an avenue to add BTC to their portfolios, the effect of Ethereum ETFs is far less certain. Unless Ethereum establishes a compelling path to improve its economic fundamentals, its price won't see substantial upside simply due to ETF approval.
On June 20, Kang was characteristically clear: "Although market momentum turned downward due to lackluster ETF inflows, I firmly believe Bitcoin remains strong and won’t fall below $50,000. For Ethereum, I expect prices to remain stable until ETF launch, but the upside this year is likely capped around $4,000."
Clearly, compared to Ethereum, Kang is more bullish on Bitcoin’s outlook—a view rooted in his extensive experience in the crypto market.
Multiple Roles: Dual Life as Crypto KOL and Investor
To date, Kang’s personal account on X has over 260,000 followers. He was previously co-founder of MinerUpdate, a cryptocurrency mining operator, where he noted: Most mining operations currently don’t use derivatives. This represents a massive upside opportunity for derivative exchanges like Deribit, BitMEX, and Binance. As mining competition intensifies and profit margins shrink, operators will need to enter the derivatives market to survive and thrive. The resulting trading activity could generate revenues multiples higher than miner activity itself.
In June 2020, the @MechanismCapital official account was launched, marking Kang’s formal transition from trader and crypto KOL to crypto investor. “Fame into funding”—this is a common trajectory in the crypto space. As previously discussed in our article “Dissecting Top KOL Investment Lists to Find New Alpha,” once a KOL reaches a certain level of influence and personal wealth, investment opportunities naturally arise. Becoming a crypto angel investor becomes inevitable. The difference lies in whether one remains a solo investor or establishes an institutional fund. Kang chose the latter. Mechanism Capital previously achieved successful investments in notable blockchain projects like NEON.
This February, Kang shared his investment philosophy on social media: "The way to achieve thousand-fold returns is by identifying teams with exceptional product potential early."
He explained: "In 2018, I had a $50,000 portfolio. By mid-2021, I grew it to the size of many well-known crypto funds in the space—all without raising external capital. The only way this was possible was by identifying top-tier teams with outstanding product potential early, accumulating large ownership stakes via public markets, and fully supporting them until they appreciated 100x or more—some even 1000x. Support included token incentive/issuance design, marketing/community strategy, DeFi integration/partnerships, exchange listings, product design, introducing other signal/investment funds/investors/users/developers, and becoming high-engagement protocol users. Many of these projects I followed from startup stages with market caps under $50 million, growing them to over $2 billion, some exceeding $5 billion—including Thorchain, Pancakeswap, and Frax Finance."
A glimpse into Kang’s portfolio
According to data from @CryptoRank_io, Kang’s recent and prominent investments include @Blast_L2 and @puffer_finance. Additionally, he has invested in NFT collateral lending platform MetaStreet, Solana-based cross-chain communication network Zeus Network (as lead investor), crypto gaming and betting platform Shuffle, Blast ecosystem lending project Orbit Protocol, and RWA Layer 2 network Plume Network, among others.
Moreover, Kang closely follows another hot sector beyond crypto. In February this year, he made what he called his “largest investment ever”—$19 million into Figure, an AI humanoid robotics company (distinct from blockchain financial services firm Figure Technologies). He believes Brett Adcock, founder of Figure, and his team will gain an early edge in the human labor market—a $42 trillion global capital market—and deploy millions of robots in the coming years, reaching at least 100 million units by the end of this decade.
Crypto Rank Portfolio interface
Additionally, according to Rootdata, Kang has invested in 12 projects over the past year, with 15 recorded investments overall, including PleasrDAO, an NFT crowdfunding DAO he actively participates in.
Notably, according to Rootdata, his network includes several partners from Mechanism Capital such as Steven Cho, Ken, Marc Weinstein, and DeFiTed, founder of PleasrDAO.
This leads us to Kang’s other multifaceted identities: seasoned NFT collector and active Meme coin participant.
Cultural Enthusiast: Azuki Was a Favorite, Meme Coins Are a New Asset Class
As early as 2021, Mechanism Capital invested in the NFT project Kanon. Its first sub-project, K21, was a closed art vault offering liquidity exposure to works by 21 influential contemporary, digital, and crypto artists. By integrating DeFi, it aligned artist incentives with investor returns, reshaping models of patronage, charity, curation, and custody.
In September 2022, Kang purchased Azuki #4978 via the NFT marketplace X2Y2 for 105 ETH (worth approximately $143,000 at the time).
In October 2022, Kang acquired Azuki #5558 via X2Y2 for 200 ETH.
In June 2023, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Nansen, Kang held 299 Azukis and 580 Elementals—the largest holdings in both collections. At the time, he also owned 436 BEANZ.
In March 2024, Kang acquired the original Pepe NFT formerly owned by 3AC (Three Arrows Capital) through Sotheby’s auction. This NFT was the first authorized by Matt Furie, creator of Pepe, and was initially sold for 420 ETH on April 17, 2021, then acquired by Starry Night Capital, 3AC’s affiliate, for 1,000 ETH on October 5, 2021.
Beyond NFTs, Kang holds Meme coins in high regard and has frequently bought into them, even changing his X profile picture to the IQ 50 Meme character.
In February this year, Kang publicly announced that his crypto fund, Mechanism Capital, had taken positions in Trump-themed tokens and related NFTs. Subsequently, Nansen data showed that on January 19, a Mechanism Capital wallet bought 500,000 TRUMP tokens at an average cost of ~$0.506, then purchased another 23,900 TRUMP the same day. Of these, 136,200 TRUMP were allocated to the Mechanism Capital wallet, 135,800 sent to wallets associated with the Mechanism Capital team, and 58,400 transferred to partner Marc Weinstein.
In March, Kang openly declared: "Meme coins have become the focal point of global speculative liquidity. Compared to traditional equities, Meme coins are now easily accessible to global users. That’s why Dogecoin has outperformed GameStop stock. Last cycle, Meme coin market cap peaked at $100 billion. Each cycle typically sees multiple expansions in peak valuation. Beyond retail, HNW traders and hedge funds are gradually entering. There’s still a long way to go." He then stated, "Fresh capital will continue buying Meme coins" to achieve outsized returns, boldly predicting: "Meme Coin 2.0—or 'culture coins'—will emerge, targeting specific audiences/ideologies/groups. Every celebrity/influencer will have their preferred collaborative token, mostly non-CEX tokens, meaning new dollars will flow on-chain to buy large amounts of SOL-based tokens, just like during the ETH and NFT season."
Soon after, the market evolved exactly as predicted: popular Solana-based Meme coins like BOME, NAP, and SLERF emerged, joining established names like PEPE, PEOPLE, WIF, BONK, and FLOKI to ignite a Meme coin frenzy. Later, pump.fun fueled celebrity-linked Meme coin projects such as JENNER and MOTHER, further validating his foresight.
At the time, unlike other market commentators, he gave Meme coins high praise: "Meme coins are not a zero-sum game—they represent a new asset class."
Conclusion: A Good Trader Is a Confident Investor
Reviewing Kang’s investment history and social media posts, we see a charismatic figure unafraid to make bold calls amid complex market conditions. He not only reacts timely to market movements but also provides solid analytical reasoning, actively championing both his investments and favored narrative trends. His journey from scratch to vast wealth was no accident.
No wonder in February this year, Chris Burniske, former ARK Invest crypto lead and current Placeholder VC partner, expressed openness to Kang’s view that Bitcoin would reach new highs in March—a prediction later confirmed by market action.
Of course, Kang’s path hasn’t always been smooth. For example, in 2021 he took a position in CELR and argued that "Layer 2 is not a winner-takes-all space"—a view still highly prescient today. Though the token has since faded, his insight remains instructive.
Kang’s journey shows that only by confidently voicing opinions and making decisive judgments can one navigate the turbulent crypto markets, discover their own "mechanism," and rise as a formidable capital force.
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