From news student to co-founder Kyber Network: Raising $ 52 million in a few hours, the 3rd most popular globally in the blockchain world

From news students to blockchain research careers

Tran Huy Vu comes from a student in the Informatics grade of Nguyen Trai High School (Hai Duong). After that, he studied at the University of Technology (Hanoi National University). This is also where Vu met Luu The Loi – co-founder of Kyber Network later. They both participated in their first startup project, developing management software for use in schools.

After graduating in 2014, Vu entered Ho Chi Minh City, and with a number of colleagues, developed a network to connect KOLs and share income from social networks. The UK has raised $ 500,000 in investment capital, connecting nearly 1,000 KOls in the US and Europe. However, after 3 years, he failed, the company had to stop working.

Vu went on to start up with another business but then closed it after a year in the market.

Co-founder Kyber Network – Tran Huy Vu.

After two unsuccessful startups, Vu returned to Hanoi, reconnecting with Luu The Loi – who was about to finish his PhD studies in Singapore and co-founded Kyber Network together. This business operates in the blockchain sector, which is still very new in both Vietnam and the world.

Kyber Network is a decentralized token conversion system in which every transaction is carried out on the user’s wallet. In other words, if on centralized exchanges, in order to trade, users have to put money in a common wallet, Kyber Network does the opposite.

Funding $ 52 million in a few hours using virtual currency

At the time of 2017-2018, in Vietnam, raising capital of tens of millions of USD is not easy and most of them are well-known startups with stable products and teams like Tiki, MoMo or GotIt !, VnTrip can do it. Capital is also raised from venture capitalists (VC – Venture Capital).

However, Kyber Network has become one of the prominent names in 2018 thanks to its great capital mobilization, with a rather new form. Specifically, the startup of Huy Vu and Luu Loi has raised 200,000 ethereum, equivalent to $ 52 million from more than 21,000 investors, in just a few hours, thanks to the ICO form.

ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is a method of raising funds with virtual money for startups, taking place in the blockchain industry.

With this event, Kyber Network ranked 10th among startups in the world with the most cryptocurrency capital mobilization in 2017.

Even at the time of successfully raising a trillion dong, Kyber Network was a very young startup and has yet to launch its exchange product. Due to the unclear legal mechanism for cryptocurrencies, many people have doubts whether this is a new technology that helps create revolutions or just a “bubble” that can explode at any time.

Kyber Network after 3 years

At the end of 2017, both Tran Huy Vu and Luu The Loi were the only two representatives of Vietnam to be honored in the list of “Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia” in the field of finance – venture capital.

An article on blockchain site – CoinDesk published in May 2020 states that Kyber Network is one of the fastest growing token projects in the world, despite the impact of Covid-19.

The KNC coin developed by Kyber Network on the Ethereum blockchain has increased in price from around $ 0.18 at the end of 2019 to $ 0.64 in early May 2020.

Meanwhile, the platform’s decentralized exchange protocol is also the third most popular in the world, with nearly $ 5.4 million in reserves in the decentralized financial system, second only to Uniswap and IDEX.

News website CoinDesk also evaluated the liquidity of Kyber Network so far is relatively good. As of January 2020, the system has about 35,000 active users. In addition, in March 2020 alone, it is estimated that the Kyber Network platform processed a total transaction volume of 200 million USD.

At its peak, Kyber Network’s total token value reached $ 600 million, while at the peak it was about $ 50 million. After the first year, the company’s staff size also increased from 5 people to 50 people, with branches in Singapore and Israel.