Introducing Ten31
Investing in Bitcoin-native companies. Founded and backed by Bitcoiners.
Our Mission: To facilitate the freedom of mankind through individual sovereignty.
Investing in Bitcoin-native companies.
Focused on advancing individual sovereignty.
Low time preference philosophy.
Management fees directed toward Bitcoin core and Lightning developers.
Ten31 was formed by Bitcoiners looking to support the Bitcoin ecosystem by investing in Bitcoin-native companies building the world’s future infrastructure.
There are plenty of VC funds and ‘crypto funds’. Ten31 is neither. We are Bitcoiners supporting Bitcoiners. We believe there is an imbalance in the market of equity capital directed to support Bitcoin-only companies relative to the significant attention and amount of capital being deployed in ‘crypto’ and ‘DeFi.’ Bitcoin-only still remains somewhat of a contrarian view. In addition, among Bitcoin maximalists it is common to argue BTC will outperform all other investments (including equity investments in Bitcoin companies) and thus the argument you are better off to HODL.
We do not necessarily disagree — we are long term HODLers and will remain so — but as the monetization of Bitcoin as a world reserve asset continues, the relative balance between the asymmetric upside currently offered by holding Bitcoin vs. the return potential offered by supporting the companies which will ultimately form the foundation of the new economic and monetary system will (over time) begin to offer favorable risk/return tradeoffs. We admire what Fulgur Ventures, Trammell Venture Partners, and Bitcoiner Ventures are doing in the space, and we hope to emulate the success they have had so far.
With Ten31 we have formed our first fund, Low Time Preference Fund I, to actively support and invest in exciting Bitcoin companies. Ten31 will invest in the equity of Bitcoin-native companies and will also hold BTC directly.
Our Thesis:
Bitcoin is the most important technology development in a generation (or more): an open source protocol for transmitting value over space and time; the first ever non-state monetary asset with provable and perfect digital scarcity where the supply is entirely unaffected by demand.
Bitcoin will become the next World Reserve Asset.
It is still early: Bitcoin is still misunderstood by most, and its upside is underestimated.
The sheer potential of the Bitcoin ecosystem makes it risky NOT to have exposure.
An entirely new decentralized economic and monetary system will be based on Bitcoin, where the monetary policy is governed by rules, and not rulers
Bitcoin is a force for good that will reshape humanity, help alleviate inequality and allow humans to flourish.
Ten31 is investing in companies forming the foundation of this new world through technological innovation.
Our Vision:
We believe founders and companies will welcome the involvement and support from like-minded investors like Ten31. We are not an incumbent VC and will not be taking an institutional approach to participating across other technology sectors. We are singularly focused on Bitcoin and have named our platform Ten31 after the date of Satoshi’s whitepaper. The Ten31 logo is a hat tip to the proof of work diagram within it. The fund name, Low Time Preference Fund I, embodies a long term philosophy and investment for the future, all of which is more natural with a sound money like Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is one of the most important things to ever happen to us personally. We have been passionate Bitcoiners for quite some time, have been feeling the gravitational pull of Bitcoin, and now feel compelled to dedicate ourselves to supporting the ecosystem given its importance to future generations.
We share the same philosophy and worldview about Bitcoin as many who are dedicating their lives to building companies in the space. Bitcoin has the potential to reshape the world and humanity for the better. This singular focus has already resonated with founders, and we are excited to continue backing interesting and exciting companies and their founders, employees and ideas.
However, we want to do more. One of the ideas we are most excited about is supporting Bitcoin and Lightning developers with the management fees generated by our fund. We have admired the efforts to support open source developers by the likes of Square and the Human Rights Foundation (among others), and we would like to follow their lead and do our part. We are not paying ourselves salaries and will be going out of pocket to cover fund expenses. We believe this will be the first time a fund has directed its management fees to developers and believe this signals strong alignment with and support for the ecosystem. We are hopeful others will consider similar actions.
Initial Portfolio
We are excited to already back a number of very promising companies in the space. To date, our portfolio includes Swan Bitcoin, Unchained Capital, Satoshi Energy and Start9 Labs. Going forward, we expect to focus on a number of areas within the Bitcoin ecosystem, including:
Financial services (consumer / institutional)
Bitcoin mining / energy services
Personal sovereignty (hardware / software)
Layer 2 / Lightning network (e.g. new payments infrastructure; applications for earning sats; gaming)
Privacy
We look forward to providing further updates.