In this episode of the MatchPoint podcast, we talked with Ilya Baranov, a partner at the Jets Capital crypto venture fund, where he manages $45 million and has conducted more than 100 transactions. Together with him, we analyzed the main topics of the Web3 market, shared insights and gave forecasts for the coming years. Below are the key points of our conversation.

Ilya told how in 2020 he created Jets Capital with an initial capital of $3 million, and by the middle of 2024 the fund's portfolio had grown to $45 million. The key point of no return for him was the deal in DeFi in 2021, when the invested $200,000 increased 15x.

We discussed one "stellar" exit, which brought the fund 12x, and one failure due to incomplete tokenomics. Ilya noted that the main thing is a clear token distribution model and transparency of economic incentives.

According to Ilya, without a strong team, even breakthrough technology has no chance. But the basic indicator of success remains the early on-chain metrics — the first transactions and user activity.

• L2 vs L0: Layer-2 protocols are still in demand, but more and more projects are looking towards L0 networks for maximum decentralization.
• NFT: The massive hype has subsided, but utilitarian NFTs (gaming, licensing) continue to effectively attract capital.

Ilya noted Toncoin's strengths: high throughput due to dynamic sharding and an active community, but named the key risks as regulatory uncertainty and competition with mature platforms.

The RWA sector is growing rapidly: in 2024, over $2.5 billion was invested in tokenization of real estate and securities. Among the flagships are projects with visual audit reports and a staking mechanism for real assets.

On-chain AI-based analytics raised more than $600 million in 2024. Major players use ML models to assess risks, predict volatility, and identify anomalies in transactions.

Ilya is confident that we are on the verge of a new investment rally: after the correction in 2023, institutional interest is growing, and with it the volume of transactions in cryptocurrencies.

• Pre-seed and seed: The funds expect the minimum viable product and the first on-chain data from startups.
• Geography: Projects from Asian and African regions are now receiving more attention thanks to local partnerships and accelerated accelerators.

For a successful listing on DEX/CEX, you must:

1. Pure legal structure,
2. Sufficient depth of liquidity,
3. Coordinated marketing campaign (AMA, partner integrations, targeting).

Ilya predicts realistic growth of venture capital volumes to $20-25 billion per year and TVL to $200 billion. The optimistic scenario is $30 billion in deals and $250 billion in TVL by the end of 2026.

Listen to the full episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/aIIzajWY2Y8 and discuss it in our Telegram channel.: https://t.me/matchpoint8 Stay tuned for new releases and stay in the epicenter of crypto investments!