The London crypto sector
London is an underrated crypto hub. I think one of the reasons it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves is because it doesn’t feel like a hub, especially compared to a place like New York. I feel that myself. Whenever I spend time in Soho or Williamsburg, I can spend days meeting crypto people without having to walk more than a couple of blocks and bump into people on the street or in coffee shops.
In London, that doesn’t really happen. The city just doesn’t have the same density. It’s much larger and spread out with no single neighborhood where startups and investors congregate. You have to make more of an active effort to seek people out here.
Look a bit closer though, and you realize London is home to some of the best-known companies in the space including the likes of Aave, Wintermute, Euler, Nexus Mutual and Plasma to name a few. And there are plenty more startups at the earlier stages. We currently have two active companies in our portfolio based here: Extended and Gina.
At its core, London has two of the most important ingredients needed to be a technology hub: capital and talent.
London is one of the world’s financial capitals. In crypto, many of the leading financial services firms including Galaxy, Cumberland, GSR and Wintermute have a large presence here, while Coinbase has its global institutional sales team in London. The city is also home to many venture capital firms and angel investors.
London is a magnet for talent. It’s home to some of the world’s top universities including Imperial College, UCL, LSE, and King’s College. Oxford and Cambridge are only about an hour away by train. These universities are great recruiting grounds for startups and have been breeding grounds for founders. Oxford in particular has produced several crypto founders, including the founders of Pump.fun, Euler, and Exo Labs.
London’s talent pool also benefits from its fintech sector. The city has produced some of the world’s leading fintechs like Revolut, Wise, and Monzo that have each created their own sets of entrepreneurs. Revolut alone saw the founders of Extended, Fuse Energy, Deblock, Due Network, and Riva Money pass through its doors and build startups in London right after.
Yet, for all its strengths, London could still do better. It is both underrated but also underperforming when measured against its potential.
Realizing its full potential will take work from both the public and private sectors.
The UK regulator needs to adopt a more crypto friendly stance. Developments which make it easier for crypto companies to secure regulatory approval are welcome. Much more needs to follow.
Bottoms-up initiatives like Stand with Crypto, bring together the community to help educate policymakers and influence policy. Efforts like HomeDAO and Encode Hub bring more people into startups by bridging the divide between academia and entrepreneurship.
We’ve made the decision to base Prelude in London. London allows us to invest globally, while also taking advantage of the strong ecosystem here. We’ll be opening an office soon, and will look to play our part in helping elevate crypto here.