Former partners' view of Multicoin: Kyle has stepped down, but the game is just beginning. In the eyes of previous partners, Multicoin is at a pivotal moment: Kyle has exited, but the real challenge and opportunity lie ahead as the journey continues.

Former Multicoin Capital Partner Mable shares her thoughts on Kyle Samani’s departure, analyzing his investment philosophy and contrarian betting strategies, as well as the future direction and team strengths of Multicoin. This article is based on an essay by Mable, former partner at Multicoin Capital and founder of Trends, titled “The game is still on, it’s just not the one that Kyle likes to play,” compiled and edited by Chain Supplement’s Ken.
(Background recap: “No longer believing in the Web3 outlook” — Multicoin Capital founder deletes post and leaves abruptly: Decentralization still about capital)
(Additional context: Dragonfly highlights the top three VC investors: Multicoin, a16z, and Paradigm — who is succeeding in crypto?)

Everyone can only excel at one game. You should spend half your time figuring out what game you’re good at, and the other half playing it well.

Kyle Samani is very clear about what his game is.

His strategy is to first develop a theory, then find suitable projects — and persist in waiting for the theory to be validated (while periodically reassessing whether it still holds). In building the “On-Chain Nasdaq” with Solana, he saw this point from the start (even though Solana was still far from this vision at the time), and executed this strategy through leading multiple funding rounds — even long after the SOL mainnet testnet launched, he continued to participate in discounted off-market rounds. He does everything he can to promote Solana’s development.

His core game is seeking asymmetric opportunities, i.e., contrarian bets. Haseeb is right: in this regard, probably no one is better than Kyle.

People question why Multicoin hasn’t captured any leading projects or infrastructure related to perpetual contract decentralized exchanges this cycle. No one knows better than I do — even before anything existed in this cycle, Multicoin was already a strong bull on perpetual contract DEXs. Even before many in the industry understood how centralized limit order books work — you might be surprised, but that’s the truth; after all, many of us started as crypto punks before becoming trading experts (laugh). Multicoin carefully studied nearly every perpetual contract DEX and analyzed the trade-offs involved. There are many blog posts about the design space and why some designs are better — you can find them at multicoin.capital.

So why did they “miss” out? Because perpetual contract DEXs and on-chain liquidity — these are no longer contrarian bets. Of course, they still have huge growth potential. But contrarian bets hold no appeal for Kyle. That has never been his game.

And for a fund, the goal is to make money for limited partners. So, managing a fund by the book is no longer the game Kyle wants to focus on. Running a data-driven company might be more his interest — something no one has successfully done before (if you’re interested, you can listen to the podcast I did with him on FWRD). Many asymmetric opportunities still await discovery. Kyle knows what his game is, so he chooses to focus on playing the game he’s good at and interested in.

No one needs to worry about who might switch to other fields. When you know what your game is, you should focus on playing it well and aiming to win. Winning isn’t the sole purpose, but devising a winning strategy is part of the game experience.

Many people worry about what Multicoin would look like without Kyle. But I’m not concerned, because I know the opportunities before us are precisely the strengths of Tushar, Brian, Spencer, Shayon, Vishal, Matt, Greg, and the rest of the team: on-chain trading, artificial intelligence, and compliance. As long as the team stays focused on playing this game correctly, it remains a top player in the industry.

For me, I’ve been a doer for nearly four years. Looking back, my time at Multicoin was unique — debating fiercely with Kyle in investment committee meetings, exchanging strategic ideas with Tushar, and exploring many design spaces with every investment committee member. I know I can’t be as excellent as any of them, but I’ve also found my passion and my own game.

For Kyle, the dream of Web3 has simply turned into cold ledgers. For me, in this highly commoditized world, these ledgers embody real value transfer. When all other filtering mechanisms fail, money becomes the only relatively scarce resource in the world to express opinions — and in the near future, even money might not be enough. That’s why I am building an asset generation protocol (@trendsdotfun).

We’ve never needed to agree on what game to play. But we sincerely wish each other all the best and cheer each other on from the sidelines.

Life is only once; focus on the game you’re best at.

I may just be playing a game, but I play to win.

Relax, but don’t let your guard down.