Origin protocol is proud to attract top talent across its network of investors, employees, and partners. We’ve gained investment from some of the digital world’s top minds, and Origin Protocol’s team is stacked with some of the greatest talent in the space. Did you know:
Surely at least a couple of these facts caught you off guard! That’s why we’ve started a new content series: Inside Origin. Inside Origin is our opportunity to flex a little bit, showing off Origin’s top-tier investors, team members, and advisors.
The first edition of Inside Origin covers Reddit co-founder and venture capitalist Alexis Ohanian. Ohanian saw tremendous potential in Origin’s long-term success, and he played a crucial role in Origin’s 2018 strategic investment round.
Brooklyn-born Alexis Ohanian has cemented his place as a visionary of rare caliber. The serial entrepreneur founded Reddit in 2005, ushering in a new era for online communities. As of 2023, Reddit serves over 1.6 billion monthly active users. The platform continues to shape online culture through its unique offering.
Reddit has also contributed to crypto adoption, with blockchain enthusiasts congregating in subreddits since the early days of Bitcoin. The space owes much of its culture to the dedicated participants of /r/bitcoin.
In the wake of Reddit’s remarkable success, Ohanian has supported the growth of cutting-edge projects like Origin through deft venture capitalism.
As a lifelong student of the internet, it’s no surprise that Ohanian has been a staple of the crypto space for almost a decade.
Notably, Ohanian made a sizable investment in Ethereum’s ICO. He’s one of very few that were able to snag ETH under a dollar, with a buy-in at just $0.30 in 2014. Even more impressively, this was far from his first foray into crypto. Ohanian co-founded San Francisco-based VC firm Intialized Capital in 2011. As of 2021, the firm had raised a total of over $3.2 billion in assets.
Under Ohanian’s tenure, Intialized Capital secured a spot as the first seed investor in Coinbase ($COIN) in 2013. Coinbase went public in 2021 with a first-day valuation of $86 billion. Being involved on ApeCoin’s Counsel and as a Bored Ape holder himself, Ohanian is also entrenched in the NFT space.
Ohanian left his role as Managing Partner at Initialized in mid-2020 to pursue new frontiers. This culminated in him founding crypto-focused VC firm Seven Seven Six in 2021.
Seven Seven Six has made its presence known across the VC landscape, having raised over $500 million in the two years since its launch.
Notably, the firm invested in QuickNode’s Series B round in 2022, which raised a total of $60 million. Seven Seven Six’s portfolio boasts a diverse array of cutting-edge tech projects. These investments range from biotech outfits promoting healthier living to trading platforms like Pipe.
Ohanian is one of those unique individuals that somehow always finds himself at the forefront of novel emerging technologies.
This, undoubtedly, is the result of his deep, cross-domain knowledge and veteran experience in understanding online trends. His investing acumen belies an insatiable passion for progress, pushing boundaries, and remaining a step ahead of the wider market.
The same vision that saw him invest in Coinbase and ETH’s ICO drew him to Origin, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to count Alexis among our investors.
