Yuan Han Li is a Partner at Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. He is noted for becoming the youngest partner in the firm's history in 2025 and for his role in the firm's investments in companies such as EigenLayer, Celestia, and Risc Zero. ^[1]

Education

Li attended Abingdon School, where he completed his A-Levels and iGCSEs. He later enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania to study Computer Science and Philosophy. During his time at the university, Li became deeply involved in the blockchain community as the Co-President and Head of Governance for Penn Blockchain, described as one of the world's largest student-run blockchain organizations. In this role, he led the organization's governance activities, recruitment, and business development. Li withdrew from the university during his final year to begin a full-time career in the cryptocurrency sector. ^{[3] [4] [2] [11]}

Career

Before joining the venture capital sector, Li gained experience in traditional finance. He served as a Summer Analyst at the private equity firm Lone Star Funds, where he supported due diligence for deals in the energy sector. He also worked with the hedge fund Nine Masts Capital, assisting with the exploration of market-neutral trading strategies for cryptocurrencies.

Li joined Blockchain Capital in March 2021 and progressed through several roles, including Research Scholar, Senior Analyst, Associate, Senior Associate, and Principal. In January 2025, at the age of 25, he was promoted to Partner, making him the youngest person to hold that title in the firm's history. His responsibilities include conducting investment diligence, sourcing new opportunities, and providing support to portfolio companies and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).

At Blockchain Capital, Li was instrumental in leading investments in key infrastructure projects, including EigenLayer, Risc Zero, and Celestia. He holds several governance positions related to the firm's portfolio, serving as a Board Member at Fabric Cryptography and a Board Observer at Blocknative, RISC Zero, and EigenLayer. In addition to his role at the firm, Li is also an angel investor, having participated in the seed funding round for the smart wallet Elytro in March 2023. ^{[4] [1] [2] [3]}

Major Works and Commentary

Li has authored several articles and research papers on topics related to blockchain technology, investment strategy, and decentralized governance. His writings often focus on technical concepts and emerging trends within the industry.

His published works include:

• "Evaluating Founders at the Seed Stage" (July 2025)
• "Case Study in Assessing Long-Term Value of Digital Assets" (May 2024)
• "Beyond Price - Understanding the Economic Principles Governing Digital Assets" (April 2024)
• "WTF is Data Availability?" (January 2022), an article explaining the concept's importance for scaling modular blockchains.
• "Right-Click Utilize" (January 2022), which discusses building new applications on top of NFTs.
• "DAO Treasury/Balance Sheet Management" (June 2021), a paper providing recommendations for DAOs on managing their financial resources.

The list of his published works is available on his official biography page.

In June 2021, Li and his colleague Aleks Larsen co-authored and submitted the "Kanpai" proposal to the SushiSwap community. The proposal outlined a treasury management solution designed to cover the protocol's operational expenses without selling its native SUSHI token.

Li has publicly articulated the firm's investment theses. Regarding an investment in KaiaChain, he stated, "The tech is finally ready. While mechanism design and cryptoeconomics remain foundational, distribution is increasingly becoming the key differentiator, especially when reaching non-crypto native users." On the firm's investment in EigenLayer, he commented, "When we first backed @eigenlayer, our thesis was always that it would help accelerate the adoption of crypto as humanity’s coordination layer." ^{[6] [3] [5] [11] [7] [8] [9] [10] [12]}