Deloitte, Ernst & Young—these names marked the starting point of her career. But Ciara Sun did not linger in the halo of the consulting industry.
In 2017, she chose a less-traveled path, diving headfirst into the then-nascent Crypto world.
She is the former Head of Listing and Investment at Huobi, and founded C² Ventures in 2021. She is a key speaker at global Crypto summits, hailed as a "Global Crypto Asian Female Leader." With over 150,000 followers on Platform X, her single tweets often garner millions of views. She also founded Women Who Crypto, continuously building bridges for women in the Web3 space.
At the VIP reception of the New Huo Group, Ciara stood at the center. This position was no accident—it is the best testament to her industry status and bears witness to her deep involvement with the Huobi ecosystem over the years.
From traditional consulting to Crypto investment, from primary markets to secondary allocations, from the frenzy of bull markets to the steadfastness of bear markets, Ciara and her C² Ventures have fully navigated two cycles.
With the current market downturn and a lack of narratives, has her investment logic changed? Which tracks are overvalued, and which are undervalued?
BroadChain conducted an in-depth conversation with Ciara during the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.
Navigating Two Cycles: Investment Discipline Forged Through Bull and Bear Transitions
C² Ventures is not a latecomer rushing in at market highs.
Ciara recalls that the fund began investing in deals in 2022 and 2023, and from its preparatory phase to now, it has experienced at least two complete cycles. In the second half of 2022, relatively centralized financial projects like FTX and Luna collapsed one after another, causing a market crash. The team has seen Bitcoin lows of over $10,000, highs of over $120,000, and a recent pullback to around $60,000.
Two rounds of bull and bear markets are enough to repeatedly validate or eliminate a set of investment logic.
In the secondary market, C² Ventures adopts a relatively conservative strategy. It only holds core assets of major assets, avoids quantitative trading, and avoids high-frequency trading. Simply put, it's Buy and Hold—taking profits at appropriate points and then looking for the next buying opportunity. There are no complex derivative structures or flashy high-frequency trading tactics, only respect for cycles and discipline in execution.
Changes in the primary market are more drastic. Ciara points out that the exit methods for projects to achieve liquidity are now very limited. If a project cannot get listed on the spot market of one or two major exchanges, liquidity is almost non-existent, users cannot enter trades, and project development is severely constrained.
In this environment, investment logic must adjust. It's not just about finding traffic-driven projects but also projects driven by real demand—projects that have the ability to generate revenue, possess a good business model, and have tokens with practical application value. For example, projects combined with AI Agents, C² Ventures invested in some relatively early on and continues to track their development.
Ciara also highlights a key dimension: during the last DeFi boom, projects that had the opportunity and ability to raise more institutional funds could bring "integrity" to the ecosystem. These are the types of projects she is most focused on now.
Choosing New Tracks: AI Plus Blockchain, RWA, and the Overlooked Major Exchange-Related Ecosystems
When asked about the tracks she is currently focusing on, Ciara's answer is clear.
The combination of AI and Blockchain is a direction she sees as promising for the future. Within the blockchain track, projects capable of carrying AI computing power inherently have a good revenue stream and can achieve significant scale. The value of the token has practical support, rather than being built on narratives.
In contrast, there is a notable shift: purely community-driven tokens without an actual promotion period—C² Ventures never invested in them, and now even the ecosystems related to a leading major exchange are receiving less attention. This is a clear signal—in a cycle of shrinking liquidity, narratives without actual business support are being phased out.
At the same time, projects like Polymarket have entered her field of vision.
Cross-market asset trading is also a key direction. Whether it's bonds, options, or stock markets, combining them with Crypto means more liquidity will flow in from cross-markets. Institutions are more familiar with these assets, and tokenizing them is a good direction. Ciara specifically mentions that based in Hong Kong, more opportunities lie in combining with traditional finance, specifically securitized assets.
Overvalued and Undervalued: The Bubble of Yield Farming and the Blind Spot of Pre-IPO
In Ciara's view, the most overvalued track in the history of the Crypto industry is undoubtedly Yield Farming—the mining model spawned by various on-chain protocols during the first wave of DeFi in 2020-2021.
Looking at the long-term timeline, this judgment is very clear. Of course, some locked capital remains within it; once an asset gains enough consensus, it does have some market value. The earliest few projects were good, but such assets are rare. The entire track later became filled with too many unreliable projects. Some teams, after launching a relatively successful mining pool, quickly switched to the next one within a week, showing extremely low capital loyalty—"pump and dump."
So, which track is undervalued? Ciara's answer is: Decentralized Angel Investment. She believes this might be a track worth highlighting because many Pre-IPO projects are now moving in this direction. This is clearly not a narrative that is hot in the market, but it is precisely the blind spot she is focusing on.
As for which asset she would hold if she could only choose one, the answer is without hesitation: BTC. This is what she calls "long-term faith."
Not Chasing Trends, but Choices Made Through Cycles
Looking back at the entire conversation, Ciara's investment philosophy is actually quite simple.
No high-frequency trading, no quantitative trading, just Buy and Hold. Not chasing purely community-driven narratives, even temporarily setting aside major exchange ecosystem projects. In a cycle of scarce liquidity, she values a project's ability to generate its own revenue, the practical application value of its token, and whether it can bring "integrity" into the still-young Web3 industry.
From lows to highs, from the frenzy of bull markets to the cold of bear markets, C² Ventures has validated its rhythm through two complete cycles. Finding buying points during market downturns, gradually building positions in May and June, and waiting for a rebound opportunity from late 2026 to early 2027—this is not short-term speculation but a calm deployment based on macro judgment and cyclical experience.
Yield farming is overvalued; Decentralized Angel Investment is undervalued. AI plus Blockchain has real revenue support, and RWA is connecting traditional finance with the Crypto world. And BTC remains the ultimate answer.
Ciara and her C² Ventures are not people standing at the forefront of trends. They are the ones who have already chosen their positions before the wind comes.