For much of the past two years, crypto investors have been forced to separate signal from noise. Token prices recovered, regulators tightened their grip, and the industry’s loudest claims about remaking finance gave way to a quieter question: which parts of blockchain are actually useful?
Singapore-based digital asset firm Psalion is betting that the answer lies less in speculative trading and more in the plumbing beneath everyday business. The firm has launched its third and largest venture vehicle, a US$50 million fund targeting early-stage startups using blockchain infrastructure in real-world markets.
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The fund, Psalion VC Fund III, is structured as a Singapore-domiciled Variable Capital Company, or VCC, a flexible investment fund structure widely used by asset managers in the city-state. It is managed by Conduit Asset Management, which is licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The choice of Singapore is not incidental. Over the past few years, the country has tried to draw a firm line between crypto speculation and regulated digital asset innovation. The MAS has tightened rules around retail crypto promotion while continuing to support institutional experiments in tokenisation, stablecoins and digital money through initiatives such as Project Guardian. For fund managers like Psalion, that regulatory posture offers both credibility and constraints.
“Crypto was the thesis. The traditional financial system was the antithesis. What we’re investing in is the synthesis, where web2 businesses run on web3 rails,” said Tim Enneking, Managing Partner of Psalion.
That framing captures where much of the venture market around blockchain has moved. The first wave of crypto investing was largely about native protocols, tokens and decentralised finance platforms. The next wave, if it materialises, may be less visible to end users: stablecoins for payments, tokenised real-world assets, blockchain-based trade finance, middleware for digital ownership, and consumer products where the underlying rails are decentralised but the interface feels familiar.
Backing builders before the market turns
Psalion said the new fund will focus on pre-seed and seed-stage companies across infrastructure, middleware, trade finance, real-world assets, stablecoins and decentralised finance. It will also look at consumer applications where web3 technology changes how people own, trade or interact with assets without requiring them to behave like crypto-native users.
The timing is notable. Psalion’s previous two funds were also launched during weaker market cycles, and the firm appears to see the current environment as a feature rather than a drawback.
“Some of the best opportunities arise in down markets. Valuations are more reasonable, founders are more focused, and the builders who show up are in it for the long term,” Enneking said.
That view is common among venture investors, but it carries particular weight in crypto, where bull markets often inflate valuations before products have found real users. The collapse of several high-profile crypto businesses in 2022 and the subsequent regulatory clean-up changed the funding landscape. Startups now face harder questions around revenue, compliance and utility.
For Southeast Asia, those questions are especially relevant. The region has a large underbanked population, strong cross-border trade flows, high mobile adoption and fragmented financial infrastructure. These conditions have long made it attractive for fintech founders. Blockchain companies now need to prove they can solve similar problems without adding unnecessary complexity.
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Stablecoins, for example, have gained attention as a tool for faster and cheaper cross-border settlement. Tokenised real-world assets have attracted banks and asset managers seeking more efficient ways to issue, trade and settle financial products. Trade finance remains a persistent pain point for small businesses across the region, where paperwork, trust gaps and slow settlement can limit access to working capital.
The opportunity is clear. The challenge is distribution, regulation and trust.
Beezie becomes an early test case
Alongside the fund launch, Psalion disclosed that it led a US$4 million round in Beezie, a commerce platform that blends digital ownership, discovery and liquidity into consumer transactions.
Beezie says it has processed more than US$170 million in gross merchandise value since launch and generated more than US$85 million in revenue year-to-date. It also claims to have attracted over 30,000 active users since January 2026. The company’s recent community raise on Echo, initially targeting US$250,000, reportedly sold out in 10 minutes and was capped at US$1 million within 24 hours.
The platform operates across collectibles, luxury and entertainment markets — categories where scarcity, authenticity and resale value matter. These are also areas where blockchain has often been pitched as useful, though consumer adoption has been uneven. Many users care about whether an item is authentic, tradable and liquid; fewer care about whether the backend uses blockchain.
That is precisely the point Psalion is making with the investment.
“Beezie is exactly the kind of company our thesis is built around — a real consumer product, real revenue, and blockchain quietly doing the heavy lifting underneath,” Enneking said. “This is what web2 meeting web3 actually looks like in practice.”
Beezie plans to use the capital for inventory acquisition, geographic expansion and growth across collectibles, luxury and entertainment. Founder and CEO Andrea Miele said the company wants to make transactions feel more engaging by combining ownership, anticipation, discovery and liquidity.
The broader question is whether that emotional layer can translate into durable commerce behaviour. Collectibles and luxury resale markets are already competitive, and user trust is hard won. Beezie will need to show that blockchain improves the experience rather than becoming a technical wrapper around familiar marketplace mechanics.
A crowded field for digital ownership
Beezie is entering a market with several established and adjacent rivals. Globally, platforms such as StockX, Whatnot, eBay, Sotheby’s and Christie’s already serve different parts of the collectibles, luxury and resale economy. In Southeast Asia, Singapore-founded Carousell and sneaker marketplace Novelship have built regional consumer bases around resale and authenticated goods. On the crypto-native side, platforms experimenting with tokenised collectibles and digital ownership have struggled to move beyond early adopters.
Psalion, meanwhile, is competing for deals with a global group of crypto and web3 investors, including Animoca Brands, Spartan Group, Hashed, Dragonfly, Pantera Capital and a16z crypto. The difference will not simply be cheque size, but whether the firm can help portfolio companies navigate compliance-heavy markets and reach users outside the crypto bubble.
Singapore’s role as a base for such funds may strengthen if institutional blockchain adoption continues to move from pilot projects to production systems. The city-state has already positioned itself as a hub for digital asset regulation, tokenisation trials and wealth management. But the region’s startup markets remain uneven. Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia each present different regulatory and consumer realities.
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For founders, that means a product that works in one market may need significant adaptation elsewhere. Payments, identity, gaming, commerce and financial services all carry local rules and behaviours. A regional web3 startup cannot rely only on the promise of decentralisation; it must solve very specific market problems.
Psalion’s new fund lands at a moment when blockchain has become less fashionable but potentially more useful. The speculative cycle has not disappeared, and neither have the risks. But investors are increasingly looking for companies that can hide technical complexity behind products people actually use.
If Psalion’s thesis proves right, the next major blockchain companies in Southeast Asia may not look like crypto companies at all. They may look like commerce platforms, trade tools, payment networks or financial infrastructure providers, with web3 working quietly in the background.
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