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Venture capital firm Paradigm restores "crypto" slogan on its website a month after removal, founder says: "We never left"

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Venture capital firm Paradigm restores "crypto" slogan on its website a month after removal, founder says: "We never left"

In May this year, the venture capital firm Paradigm removed all crypto-related slogans from its website without any explanation. However, Paradigm's website now not only reintroduced the term "Crypto" to the platform, but also added two rows of "Crypto" marquees at the top and bottom of the webpage. The co-founders also emphasized in a lengthy post that "Paradigm has never been more focused on the crypto space."

Paradigm Deletes Crypto Terms and Sparks Controversy

Paradigm removed crypto-related terms from its website on May 26, when Bitcoin was at $26,000 and the AI craze was sweeping the tech industry.

The original self-introduction of Paradigm was "supporting companies and protocols that are disruptive to crypto or Web3."

It was changed to "a research-driven technology investment firm," and the statement "we believe crypto will define the next few decades" was removed.

Paradigm: Never More Focused on Crypto

Co-founder Matt Huang tweeted that when he and Fred Ehrsam founded Paradigm five years ago, there was no overall plan, but driven by curiosity about the future and a firm belief in cryptocurrency, they positioned themselves early on as "research partners."

By learning in a research-oriented way and then investing, they made Paradigm a better research institution and investor.

Despite the global AI craze and being seen by many as competitors to cryptocurrencies, Matt Huang emphasized that although the two overlap significantly, they both have unique and interesting aspects, and they will continue to explore both areas:

We don't buy into the idea that crypto and AI are a zero-sum competition; Paradigm has never been more excited about the crypto space, and we will continue to invest, release independent research, and assist in developing projects like Uniswap v2, v3, v4.

Previously Invested in FTX: Unforgettable Historical Pain

The stablecoin project Reflexer Finance tweeted in May after Paradigm removed crypto terms from its website:

Paradigm, do you remember giving SBF a $270 million investment in FTX? And then FTX went to zero and became a scar on the entire crypto industry? Now you're rebranding to distance yourself from crypto? Please burn all FLX tokens you hold, we no longer want to work with you.

Paradigm Still Doesn't Include Crypto, Web3 in Self-Introduction Title

Currently, the self-introduction title is still the modified "a research-driven technology investment firm" from May 26, rather than the original "supporting companies and protocols that are disruptive to crypto or Web3."

Paradigm's removal of crypto terms occurred after the FTX collapse and the rise of AI, and the restoration of the terms began in mid-June, coinciding with the submission of several Bitcoin spot ETF applications. Is all this a coincidence?

Paradigm's actions also caught the attention of venture partner Adam Cochran, who questioned the reason behind the deletion of Crypto terms.

Matt Huang replied "1/355," sarcastically referencing Adam Cochran's habit of writing long threads on Twitter. The latter graciously accepted the joke and responded:

1/355, in fact, this number of tweets is enough for me to list how many times Paradigm has boasted about crypto technology on its website. If you really believe that crypto is a great technology, Paradigm should be happy to define itself by it, rather than just talking about it on Twitter.