The emerging DeSci stack

Over the past few months we’ve seen the emergence of the decentralised science (DeSci) stack. For simplicity's sake, I’ve broken it down into 3 core layers - infrastructure, middleware and applications. Infrastructure. Putting scientific research on-chain, not just online, enables anyone to access it. Most of…

Decentralised Science (DeSci)

At Cherry Crypto we share the view that web3 comprises a set of technologies that will ultimately underpin every industry. Smart contracts, fungible tokens, non fungible tokens (NFTs), DAOs, are new tools that founders can leverage when building the next generation of companies. So far, these tools have mostly been…

The pull of ownership

A couple of years ago I bought a Sorare card of the Japanese football player Kaoru Mitoma. Sorare is an NFT-based fantasy sports game and collectibles platform. At the time Mitoma was playing for Kawasaki Frontale in the Japanese League and considered a promising, young talent. A few months later…

Sneaks and physically-backed NFTs

Our portfolio company Courtyard recently launched a sneaker marketplace called Sneaks. Differently to other sneaker marketplaces, buyers and sellers on Sneaks transact in physically-backed NFTs. Physically-backed NFTs are NFTs that grant holders ownership of an underlying physical asset. When buyers come onto Sneaks they can browse the marketplace of sneakers…

Token Warrants

I’ve previously written on the deal structure we gravitate towards when making a first investment into a crypto company: equity + token warrants. In this post I’ll dive into the token warrant itself and highlight some key points. A warrant is similar to an option. Warrants give their holders…

Structuring the first crypto financing round

At Cherry Crypto we work at the earliest stages with founders and often come to the discussion of how to structure their first financing round. I wanted to share our thoughts with the hope that others find it helpful and to help sharpen our own thinking. The main and obvious…

NFT lending models

The synthesis of NFTs and DeFi promises to unlock utility for all types of NFTs by enabling their use in a host of financial services. A segment within this space that we’re excited about is NFT-backed lending. Most loans in DeFi today are either overcollateralized with fungible tokens or…

Exploring un(der)collateralized lending in DeFi

Lending markets are a core financial primitive with one of the highest adoption rates across DeFi today. The top 3 lending protocols, Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO currently have around $10B in outstanding loans. While loan volume is one lens through which to look at these lending protocols, another is to…