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Get Ready for Investor Fan Tokens: Polychain Backs Prysm’s Approach to ‘Social Investing’

Get Ready for Investor Fan Tokens: Polychain Backs Prysm’s Approach to ‘Social Investing’

Get Ready for Investor Fan Tokens: Polychain Backs Prysm’s Approach to ‘Social Investing’

The platform aims to let new traders follow “the best investors in DeFi.”

The platform aims to let new traders follow “the best investors in DeFi.”

The platform aims to let new traders follow “the best investors in DeFi.”

AccessTimeIconSep 21, 2021, 4:00 PM
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:13 PM

Prysm founders Thomas Scaria (left) and Shelby Thomas (Prysm)

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Prysm, a social investing platform focused on crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has launched the first public version of its network, armed with $3 million in seed funding.

The round was led by North Island Ventures with participation from Polychain Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, Leminscap, CMT Digital, Free Company, Alameda Ventures, Infinite Capital, Flow Ventures and Drops Foundation, the company announced on Tuesday.

These days, investors in crypto don’t speak to a broker or some Wall Street type; they talk to their friends on social media, or just strangers on the internet. Of course, disruption of the traditional investment advisory model is not new, but “social investing 1.0” isn’t really up to snuff, according to .

The real network effects of social investing have been hampered until now by inconsistent, siloed and centralized platforms, Scaria said in an interview. Moreover, the next generation of financial value creators will want to truly own their audience and have more direct links to monetization. More like a Substack than an eToro, in other words.

“Web 3 enables an entirely new stab at social investing,” Scaria told CoinDesk. “DeFi, for instance, is this connective financial fabric that unlocks new network effects. NFTs let creators build closer relationships with their fans. All this allows creators to own their resumes and their audience, and I think social investing will evolve into a new online economy.”

Users can connect their MetaMask wallet to Prysm, create a profile and stipulate what sort of investments interest them, be that NFTs, swing trading or “gem hunting” (finding low-cap coins on platforms like Uniswap). Thereafter relevant investors matching the user’s profile are suggested for them to follow.

The platform also offers a degree of transparency and verification, as Prysm ensures investors have their money where their mouth is, Scaria said. There are also interesting ways that investors are incentivized to leak alpha to their fans.

“We made this ‘idea creator’ where some investor can suggest ideas for his fans to copy,” Scaria said. “They can mint these ideas as one-off NFTs and have scarce access to their superfans. So they might mint just five of these and price them at $500 apiece and only holders of those NFTs have access to this trade idea.”

A slew of angel investors also joined the funding round, including Zane Tackett, Tony Sheng, Imran Khan, Qiao Wang, Clay Robbins, Regan Bozman, Sergei Chan and Marc Weinstein.

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Ian Allison is an award-winning senior reporter at CoinDesk. He holds ETH.


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