Silicon Valley Perspective: The Seven Most Promising Early-Stage Crypto Companies in 2021
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Silicon Valley Perspective: The Seven Most Promising Early-Stage Crypto Companies in 2021
Each year, The Information selects 50 most promising startups based on current revenue, business models, and growth prospects, primarily relying on its reporters consulting industry insiders (such as VCs) and gathering previously undisclosed financial data.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
The Information is a Silicon Valley tech media outlet I deeply admire.
Each year, The Information selects 50 of the most promising startups based on current revenue, business models, and growth potential. Their reporters consult industry insiders (such as VCs) and gather previously undisclosed financial data to compile this list.
This ranking is limited to startups that have raised less than $100 million in funding over the past three years or recently launched operations.
Among them, six companies fall under the cryptocurrency category. As this list comes from a Silicon Valley tech media and VC equity perspective, some of these names may not be widely known, but they are worth knowing.
The six firms are Chia Network, Audius, TRM Labs, Zerion, QuickNode, and Mojito. Additionally, one Web3-related company made the list in the media category—Mirror (YYDS), a favorite among creators. These projects share common traits: all are U.S.-based and backed by major capital. While I might not fully agree that each is truly the most promising, they offer valuable insight into Silicon Valley’s perspective, with some even serving as behind-the-scenes heroes in the crypto industry.
Let's examine each company and their rationale for being included.
Chia Network
Chia Network has developed a more environmentally friendly cryptocurrency compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, as it consumes significantly less energy during operation and relies on recycled hardware.
Bram Cohen, founder and CEO of Chia Network, invented BitTorrent, a popular decentralized file-sharing network. The company has attracted investor attention due to its potential to greenwash cryptocurrencies and the strength of its team.
Main Investors
Richmond Global Ventures, Andreesen Horowitz, Slow Ventures, Naval Ravikant, having raised $77.3 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two most popular cryptocurrencies, are frequently criticized for their high energy consumption caused by proof-of-work mechanisms. Chia Network designed a cryptocurrency using a method called "proof of space and time," which leverages unused storage space on hard drives to mint coins—eliminating the need for energy-intensive mining rigs. Chia mining can even be done on personal laptops, an advantage that helps broaden adoption.
Although Chia transactions were only enabled in May, its market cap has already surpassed $200 million—an impressive feat for a currency only five months old. The company currently employs 50 people.
Audius
Founded in 2018, Audius is a decentralized music streaming service built on blockchain technology and powered by a crypto token. Founders Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning met at summer camp before attending Stanford University and had each founded tech startups prior to co-founding Audius. Rumburg already had crypto experience—he founded Backslash, a Bitcoin peer-to-peer payments company.
Main Investors
Multicoin Capital, Pantera Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, raising $10 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
Audius aims to help musicians build more direct relationships with fans, allowing them to capture a larger share of streaming revenue than platforms like Spotify offer.
Rather than being owned by a private corporation, Audius is user-owned, with ownership defined by individual holdings of the AUDIO token. This allows users to trade tokens and vote on platform governance decisions. The company has 25 employees, 6.4 million monthly active users (up from 1 million in January), and over 100,000 music artists who have uploaded tracks to the app.
While the service is currently free, Audius is developing a business model where 10% of streaming revenue will go to the Audius network and AUDIO token holders, while artists receive the remaining 90%. With over 10,000 token holders on the network—and VC investors receiving AUDIO tokens as part of their investment—the token’s total market cap exceeds $900 million.
TRM Labs
Founded in 2017, TRM Labs is a blockchain intelligence company providing compliance and risk management products to financial institutions, crypto businesses, and public sector organizations. Its tools identify potentially risky crypto transactions linked to illegal activities such as money laundering.
Co-founder and CEO Esteban Castaño dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business to start the company with Rahul Raina, whom he met while working at a youth education nonprofit in 2016.
Main Investors
Bessemer Venture Partners, Initialized Capital, Blockchain Capital, PayPal Ventures, Y Combinator, raising $20 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
As cryptocurrencies gain popularity and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, banks, government officials, and crypto firms increasingly require tools to monitor blockchain transactions for illicit activity. TRM sells software products via a subscription and usage-based revenue model. These products use AI to analyze publicly available blockchain data for signs of illegal behavior. The company has 50 employees, has seen a sixfold increase in year-to-date revenue, and serves clients including major crypto exchanges like Binance and FalconX. Its annual revenue exceeds $5 million.
Zerion
Founded in 2016, Zerion is a digital wallet and investment app enabling users to trade crypto tokens and invest in decentralized finance through products like decentralized index funds—which track the performance of a basket of crypto assets. Co-founder Evgeny Yurtaev previously worked in software engineering at Google.
Main investors include Mosaic Ventures, Placeholder, Digital Currency Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Blockchain Ventures, raising $10.2 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
Zerion users can access over 100,000 tokens and more than 70 protocols. The app reports processing over $800 million in transaction volume year-to-date, up from just $26 million last year.
With 21 full-time employees, Zerion currently does not charge trading fees but plans to do so eventually. It generates some revenue by licensing access to its services for other apps that want to integrate them.
QuickNode
Founded in 2017, QuickNode enables software developers, payment companies, crypto exchanges, and other enterprises to more easily build and run blockchain applications—such as NFT marketplaces and crypto trading platforms. Its four founders each spent an average of 10 years managing data and high-speed computer networks.
Main Investors
Tiger Global Management, Seven Seven Six, SoftBank, raising $45 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
An increasing number of enterprise developers aim to profit from crypto by building and running blockchain applications. QuickNode simplifies application management by charging customers to rent its nodes—computers connected to blockchain networks that validate and record transactions. This allows clients to focus on their core business without worrying about blockchain software updates.
Pricing plans range from $9 to over $1,000 per month depending on the number of blockchain transactions a customer’s app processes monthly. Clients include Coinbase, PayPal, blockchain analytics tracker DappRadar, NFT marketplace OpenSea, and more than 20,000 paying individual developers.
Mojito
Mojito helps companies build markets to sell NFTs. The company was co-founded by Amanda Cassatt and Matthew Iles, both former employees of ConsenSys. They also co-founded Serotonin, a crypto-focused marketing firm, before launching Mojito this year.
Main Investors
Future Perfect Ventures, Sotheby’s, raising $20 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
Founded in 2021, Mojito helps other businesses create, customize, market, and manage NFT marketplaces, earning revenue from transaction fees (for example, OpenSea charges a 2.5% fee). Mojito’s first announced client was auction house Sotheby’s. The startup also counts Mattel and Creative Artists Agency as clients. To date, Mojito’s clients have generated nearly $100 million in NFT sales this year.
Mirror
Founded in 2020, Mirror is a platform for publishing newsletters and articles, where authors can crowdfund projects by selling NFTs. It was created by a former Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) crypto investment partner.
Main Investors
Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Atelier Ventures, raising over $10 million.
Rationale for Inclusion
Mirror sits at the intersection of cryptocurrency and content creators—a space gaining growing interest among investors and social media influencers. It opens new revenue streams for writers who can crowdfund projects using crypto instead of relying on publisher advances—like author Emily Segal did for her upcoming novel. Kyle Chayka, a contributor to The New Yorker, sold NFTs on Mirror to fund his newsletter “Dirt.” Other writers on the platform include Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, and venture capitalist Li Jin. Some authors appreciate that content stored on a distributed digital ledger cannot be removed by tech platforms. In the future, Mirror may take a cut from NFT sales or charge authors subscription fees.
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