Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Michael Wong
MaiCapital
Managing Partner
MaiCapital is the first Hong Kong SFC Type 4 & 9 asset manager in Hong Kong to have a dedicated cryptocurrency asset operation. We seek to employ our wealth of experience in fund management and technology to offer institutionalized investment services in the digital asset market. Furthermore, we aim to leverage this platform to offer a new service to structure Digitized Funds, a blockchain-based investment vehicle to unleash illiquid alternative assets such as real estate, etc.
Publish Date:
25 October 2019
Hong Kong
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
I came from technology background, graduating from Stanford's Electrical Engineering program and then working in the wireless technology industry for over 16 years at Qualcomm and Atheros. My work there ranged from R&D roles such as software protocol development to business leadership roles where I overlooked regional business development and sales teams in Asia/China. In 2018, my Stanford classmate, Benedict, and I decided to venture into the Blockchain space and founded MaiCapital. We both strongly believe in the long term impact of Blockchain technology and thus we decided to team up, leveraging our different experiences (Ben came from traditional finance and asset management space while I come from Technology space) to build MaiCapital. We also believe that for Blockchain and cryptocurrency to be sustainable long term, there must be better regulation and investor protection in place. Thus we saw an opportunity to pro-actively build a properly regulated investment business in the Blockchain space, not only differentiating ourselves, but also enabling us to have a more legitimate standing in the industry.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Our organization has a mission to provide Blockchain related financial services under a regulated and legitimate operation. Thus, it is hugely important for us to uphold our core values as they align exactly with the mission of the company. There are still bad actors in the cryptocurrency space and we need to not only standout from the crowd, but also maintain our course of remaining legitimate so that we can have a sustainable business long-term.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
We have launched our first investment fund that invests in cryptocurrency and related assets. The fund uses various quantitative algorithms and investment tools (longs/shorts/derivatives) to invest in the cryptocurrency/Blockchain market , i hope of generating consistent returns in the long run. The fund aims to manage the related risks of investing in this market (risks related to counterparties, cybersecurity market volatility) and at the same time generate strong positive returns to capture the long term value growth of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Separately, we have a new product, which we termed as Digitized Funds, and we will launch this very soon. The concept is the leverage Blockchain and tokenization technologies to fractionally securitize alternative assets such as real estate and private companies into an investment vehicle that can enable more investors to participate and unlock liquidity from these illiquid assets.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
The industry has been growing very rapidly over the past 2 years. 2017 was definitely an overcharged, hyped up phase for the industry. In 2018, the industry pulled back significantly with many bad actors and weaker players being squeezed out of the market. But the industry came roaring back in 2019 with announcements from many big players such as Facebook, JP Morgan, Fidelity, etc. getting involved in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
Our proven digital asset operation which is compliant with SFC regulation. In our understanding, there is currently no one else in the market that has this as of now.
What does the future hold for your company?
The future is very exciting for the company as there is still a lot of potential in the Blockchain technology to be unlocked. However, the industry evolve very rapidly and thus we need to stay agile in order to remain relevant in this fledgling industry.