Jerome Wong
Jerome Wong is the founder of City Protocol, a blockchain infrastructure venture for intellectual property that he launched in April 2025.[1][2] Before founding City Protocol he spent nearly seven years as co-founder and Chief Business Officer of Everest Ventures Group (EVG), a digital-assets holding company headquartered in Hong Kong, and he built a portfolio of advisory and investment roles across the digital-asset industry.[3] He began his career as an investment banker at HSBC and UBS before moving into cryptocurrency, a transition he and profiles about him describe as that of "an investment banker turned Web3 rainmaker."[4][5]
Early Life and Education
Wong earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Politics with a minor in Psychology from Peking University.[5][1] During his studies he participated in the JING Forum at the University of Tokyo and the Forum for American-Chinese Exchange at Stanford University (FACES), two student exchange programs.[3] He also took part in the Semester at Sea / ISE program, associated on his profile with Fort Collins, Colorado, and completed his secondary education at St. Paul's Co-educational College in Hong Kong, where he sat the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE).[6][3]
Among the honors listed on his profile are the Goldman Sachs Scholar recognition, the Lee Shau Kee Scholarship, and a Semester at Sea Scholar award.[3]
Career
Jerome Wong held positions in finance, consulting, research, and investment before moving into investment banking. From 2013 to 2016, he served as a vice president at AIESEC in a general management role. In 2014, he worked as a summer analyst at Bank of China (Hong Kong). In 2015, he was a part-time associate at Bain & Company in Beijing and a research intern analyst at Colliers International, also in Beijing. In 2016, he worked as an investment banking summer analyst at UBS in Hong Kong. He later held an investment banking summer analyst position at HSBC in Hong Kong from June to August 2017, which served as the basis for later work with digital assets.
From January to March 2017, Wong worked as a research intern analyst at Our Hong Kong Foundation (團結香港基金), where his work involved blockchain research. The APAC Focus profile identifies the same position as a research-assistant role. From December 2017 to February 2018, he worked as an investment intern analyst at VIPKID in Beijing. He then joined HSBC in Hong Kong as an investment banking analyst from February to October 2018, with a focus on real estate and infrastructure.
Everest Ventures Group
In October 2018, Wong co-founded Everest Ventures Group (EVG) and became its Chief Business Officer, a position he held until June 2025. EVG is described as a digital-assets holding company focused on digital assets and blockchain technologies. The company was established by entrepreneurs, financiers, and internet industry professionals and has offices in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Abu Dhabi.
The profile states that EVG and its Everest Global arm have been involved in more than 15 blockchain products and more than 10 companies described as unicorns, as well as an ecosystem comprising more than 1,000 partners. Finoverse describes EVG as a Web3 venture-building group operating since 2018.
Wong's work at EVG included building and incubating several ventures. Finoverse identifies Kikitrade, a social trading platform; Aspen Digital, a wealth-technology platform; Mugen Interactive, a metaverse gaming studio; Cassava Network, an African incentive infrastructure project; and Adaverse, an Africa-focused venture fund. Wong has stated that he helped initiate Aspen Digital and co-founded Africa Blockchain Labs, Mugen Interactive, and Deva Studio. APAC Focus lists him as an Honorary Advisor for crypto, blockchain, and Web3.
Adaverse
From September 2021 to May 2025, Wong served as a co-founding partner of Adaverse, an Africa-focused venture capital firm and accelerator that also operates as a blockchain fund of funds. Adaverse is a joint venture with Emurgo, the commercial arm associated with the Cardano blockchain. The firm is headquartered in Singapore and has a presence in Nigeria, with personnel distributed across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Singapore.
Aspen Digital
Wong served as an advisor to Aspen Digital from March 2021 to May 2025. His profile states that Aspen Digital was co-founded by EVG and TTB. The company operates a digital and crypto asset investment platform intended for wealth and asset managers. The profile lists Rothschild Investment Trust, Liberty City Ventures, Cherubic Ventures, Somerley Capital, Token Bay Capital, and the CP Group family among its backers. It also states that Aspen Digital raised $8.8 million in funding across one prior round. The company is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates and has a presence in Hong Kong.
City Protocol
In April 2025, Wong founded City Protocol, where he serves as founder. The company is described as an infrastructure for intellectual property (IP) and capital that is designed to support the creation and management of what it calls "IP Capital Markets." Its stated purpose is to facilitate the use of onchain structures for IP assets and real-world assets (RWA). The company is listed as a financial-services firm with 11 to 50 employees.
Following the company's establishment, Wong identified himself publicly as its founder and published material on onchain investing under his name. In mid-2025, he circulated Chinese-language articles including "七大传奇基金的熊市风险课", concerning risk lessons from seven investment funds, and "普通人也能读懂的链上投资产品手册", concerning onchain investment products. Some of these articles were also published through the project's Telegram channel.
City Protocol has been developing a product referred to by Wong as "OTP — Onchain." In September 2025, he described a visit to the Coinbase Singapore office, where founders presented their work and participated in a roundtable concerning trading, financing, and payments with Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong and members of the Base ecosystem. During the same month, City Protocol hosted an online session titled "Onchain Yield", concerning the direction of onchain yield. Wong publicly credited participants including Andre Cronje.
Investments and Advisory Roles
Wong has held investment and advisory positions in digital-asset companies through EVG and independently. Since November 2018, he has been associated with Animoca Brands as an investor, venture partner, and advisor. His profile states that EVG acted as corporate advisor for a US$500 million raise by Animoca Brands. From October 2018 to April 2021, Wong was an angel investor and advisor to The Sandbox, a decentralized metaverse game. He has also publicly identified himself as an advisor to Animoca Brands and The Sandbox, and states that he advises the Animoca and Brinc NFT accelerator and Emurgo, the commercial entity associated with Cardano.
From August 2020 to December 2024, Wong served as an advisor to BlockTempo (動區動趨), a blockchain media organization serving readers in the Greater China region and the organizer of the Asia Blockchain Summit (ABS).
Wong also held investment and advisory roles at Dapper Labs from March 2019 to March 2020 and at Lightnet Group from December 2018 to January 2020.
His other investment positions include Infinex in May 2024; Moca Network from March to April 2024; Berachain in March 2024; Abstract Foundation from September to October 2023; Movement Labs from May to June 2023; Reap from August to September 2022; Cetus Protocol from August to September 2022; VelaFi from May to June 2022; Afriex in February 2022; Wormhole in February 2022; Celestia Labs in November 2021; Yuga Labs from October to November 2021; Immutable in July 2021; NAVER Z (ZEPETO) from March to April 2021; Transsnet Financial in January 2021; and Kraken in January 2021.
The profiles associated with these investments describe the companies as follows: Infinex as a non-custodial, passkey-first, multi-chain crypto application and trading platform; Moca Network as identity infrastructure using zero-knowledge proofs; Berachain with $142.2 million in total funding; Abstract Foundation as a consumer-focused blockchain project from the team associated with Pudgy Penguins; Movement Labs as a blockchain development organization working with Move-based networks, with $41.4 million in total funding; Reap as financial infrastructure using stablecoins, with $46 million in total funding; Cetus Protocol as a decentralized exchange on Sui; VelaFi as stablecoin financial infrastructure in Latin America, with $30 million in total funding; Afriex as a payment and remittance platform serving Africans and the diaspora, with $26.6 million in total funding; Wormhole as multichain interoperability infrastructure, with $225 million in total funding; Celestia Labs as a modular data-availability network, with $156.5 million in total funding; Yuga Labs as an IP studio associated with Bored Ape Yacht Club, with $450 million in total funding; Immutable as a blockchain gaming company associated with Immutable X, Gods Unchained, and Guild of Guardians; NAVER Z (ZEPETO) as an avatar-focused metaverse company in Korea, with $208 million in total funding; Transsnet Financial as a fintech joint venture between Transsion Holdings and NetEase; and Kraken as a cryptocurrency exchange, listed with $1.6 billion in total funding.
Wong has described his investment activity as including selected investments in early-stage startups and stated that he assists founders with fundraising, marketing, and go-to-market strategy. APAC Focus and Finoverse list additional companies with which he has been associated as an investor or advisor, including Dapper Labs, Immutable, Kraken, Upbit, DoraHacks, Coin98, Blocto, izumi Finance, Highstreet, OP Games, Matrix World, and Future Hub in Africa (Transsion). Finoverse states that his involvement extends to more than 40 projects.
Public and Industry Engagement
Wong has published and participated in discussions concerning Web3, Hong Kong policy, and digital-asset investment. In June 2025, he published Chinese-language articles under his City Protocol byline, including "七大传奇基金的熊市风险课", "普通人也能读懂的链上投资产品手册", and an article concerning the creation of tradable crypto assets and public understanding of those assets.
In December 2025, Wong highlighted the "Arts, Creatives & Humans Symposium 2025", a city-to-city event involving Hong Kong and Tokyo that concluded in Tokyo on 23 November 2025 in collaboration with Shoko Sae. In May 2026, he publicly congratulated the Reap team and referred to his role as an investor in the company. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
