Dear Friends & Family,

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, recently acknowledged what many in the field have long known but rarely say out loud: we don’t fully understand how today’s AI systems work - and that worries people.

“This lack of understanding is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology."

His candid admission about the “black box” nature of AI has reignited debate across the tech world about safety and ethics in artificial intelligence.

It’s fascinating, and a little unsettling, that, for the first time, digital technology isn’t strictly binary (Quantum tech, of course, will bring its own set of nuances).

AI feels like it has a mind of its own: sometimes brilliant, sometimes... not.

‍It feels almost human.

Maybe we really can train AI toward something like consciousness after all.

Or maybe it’s already training itself.

Blockchains, in contrast, don’t suffer from this ambiguity.

Their logic is deterministic. Their outputs are predictable. Everything is binary.

‍Ideal guardrails for the agentic AI revolution.

‍Welcome Tergle

What do Adam Bowen and William Tarr from the UK have in common with Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Vitalik Buterin?

They started their company when they were just 20 and 21.

‍While most people their age are still figuring out what to do with their lives, Adam and William are laser-focused on something that might seem boring to some but is absolutely critical to the smooth functioning of our economy: auditing.

With Tergle, they’re bringing AI to the audit industry.

Fresh out of Y Combinator, with Monzo founder Tom Blomfield as their mentor, they’ve already landed billion-dollar companies as early clients.

Not bad for year one.

Meanwhile, the Big Four accounting firms are pledging hundreds of millions to build AI tools for external auditors.

Adam and William are starting from the inside - enabling internal audit teams to focus on high-value work by automating much of the manual checking and busywork.

We’re proud to back them alongside Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Amino Capital, and other top-tier investors, as they quietly build what auditors have always wanted but never knew was possible.

Welcome Raremarq

Raremarq was born out of a shared passion that unites millions: a deep love for physical collectibles, the creators who make them, and the stories they tell.

While much of the world is chasing (likely short-lived) digital assets and virtual goods, Chris Tung is taking the opposite approach.

He believes nothing is more powerful than a tangible artifact - and the human story behind it.

Chris’s journey began at 17, when he met Marvel legend Frank Cho at a comic convention.

That wasn’t just a fan encounter. It sparked a lifelong obsession with the artistry and soul of comic books.

Eighteen years later, he launched Raremarq, a curated marketplace for rare goods from the world’s top creators.

In its first year, the platform has surpassed $1 million in gross merchandise value, with over 200 verified sellers and 16,000 monthly active users, achieved entirely through creator-led growth and almost zero paid acquisition.

With blockchain (for provenance, authenticity, digital twins, and payments) and AI (for discovery, personalization, buyer/seller support, and fraud prevention), Raremarq is quietly reimagining what a modern marketplace can be.

We’re proud to back Chris and his team - alongside Jason Calacanis and the LAUNCH crew - as they build the next-generation platform for superfans and creators.

Coming up: Blockchain Week, Berlin, June 16-18

Berlin Blockchain Week is a decentralized, community-organized initiative - true to the spirit of crypto.

Ben and Sagar will be there from June 16-18 and co-host

Core Connect Global Buildathon IRL Meetup on June 16, 10h (register here) and

OKX Germany Official Launch on June 16, 19h (register here),

featuring a panel and two fireside chats with Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands and Philipp Zentner, CEO and founder of Li.Fi.

If you would like to meet up, drop them a note.

Recommended

Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston, co-founders of Y Combinator, didn’t just build the world’s most successful startup accelerator.

They helped define modern startup culture itself: lean, fast-moving, and relentlessly focused on user love over flashy pitch decks.

Their mantra, “make something people want” continues to shape how thousands of startups build, think, and survive.

Equally iconic are Paul Graham’s essays, published on his gloriously outdated website, a design probably unchanged since just after Tim Berners-Lee invented the web.

But behind that minimalist facade lies a fountain of startup wisdom.

It’s a crash course in building companies - distilled from the lessons of 4,000 startup investments and decades of first-hand experience.

One essay in particular, written a decade ago, feels more relevant than ever: “Default Alive or Default Dead”.

At a time when AI enables founders to build companies on a shoestring - and simultaneously, when reaching Series A has become harder thanks to distorted expectations (“$100M ARR in 3 months” anyone?) - Graham’s message is essential reading.

And that’s just one gem. There are dozens more.

Reading Paul Graham for venture capital is like reading Poor Charlie’s Almanack for investing.

It’s the fastest path to wisdom.

Welcome to our new investors

We’re deeply grateful to our new investors who’ve recently joined our already incredible group of backers - and to those about to join as I write this.

Your trust means the world to us.

We’re excited to pass that trust forward to the remarkable founders we’ve already partnered with, and those we’re about to (there’s a lot in the pipeline).

Despite the many current turbulences in the world, we remain, as ever, deeply optimistic about the future.

Thank you for reading.

All the very best,

Wolfgang (Frankfurt) with Ben (back in Berlin), Marcel (Munich), and Sagar (Munich)