# Tom Schmidt

> Tom Schmidt is a General Partner at Dragonfly Capital, the leading crypto-native venture firm, where he serves as the team's DeFi expert. A Stanford CS graduate who mined Dogecoin in 2012 and turned down an early Coinbase offer to intern at a Chinese AI company, Schmidt brings rare cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary depth to his investing. After stints at Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Instagram, and 0x Protocol, he joined Dragonfly in 2019 and has since championed landmark bets on Dune Analytics, Lido, Ethena, Polymarket, and Rain. He writes some of the most technically rigorous DeFi research in the industry and is known as a low-profile investor whose map of the future tends to be a few years ahead of the market.

- **Role:** General Partner at Dragonfly Capital
- **Organizations:** Dragonfly Capital, Stanford University, Facebook, Instagram, 0x Protocol, Apple, Microsoft
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** General Partner at Dragonfly Capital, one of the largest crypto-native VC firms ($650M Fund IV, 2026), Early backer of Dune Analytics (seed round, 2020) - now a standard tool for blockchain data analysis, Early investor in Lido (liquid staking), Ethena (synthetic dollar protocol), and Polymarket (prediction markets)

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Began mining Dogecoin while a student at Stanford
- **2013-2014** — Co-President of the Stanford Venture Capital Club; internships at Apple and Microsoft
- **2014** — Interned at DeepGlint (Chinese AI company), deliberately choosing it over an early Coinbase offer to gain Asia exposure; learned Mandarin
- **2014-2015** — Founded Nugget, a deal-finding app
- **2015-2017** — Product Manager, Ads at Facebook
- **2017-2018** — Product Manager at Instagram, working on programmatic advertising products generating billions in revenue
- **2018-2019** — Head of Product at 0x Protocol, growing it into one of the largest DEXs on Ethereum
- **2019** — Joined Dragonfly Capital as junior partner (December 2019)
- **2020** — Led investments in Dune Analytics (seed), Opyn, and Tornado Cash for Dragonfly
- **2021** — Promoted to General Partner; appeared on Bloomberg Odd Lots to explain DeFi; published major research on MEV and liquidators
- **2022** — Navigated bear market; wrote open letter to founders; Dragonfly Fund III closed at $650M
- **2023** — Invested in Ethena during bear market; participated in Consensus 2023 panels
- **2024** — Participated in Yale Blockchain Conference; continued Fund III deployment
- **2025** — Invoked Fifth Amendment during Tornado Cash trial (Roman Storm case); DOJ reportedly considered charges that did not materialize
- **2026** — Dragonfly closes $650M Fund IV (February 2026); appears in AI + Crypto content on agentic payments

## Achievements

- General Partner at Dragonfly Capital, one of the largest crypto-native VC firms ($650M Fund IV, 2026)
- Early backer of Dune Analytics (seed round, 2020) - now a standard tool for blockchain data analysis
- Early investor in Lido (liquid staking), Ethena (synthetic dollar protocol), and Polymarket (prediction markets)
- Authored widely-read DeFi research including 'Liquidators: The Secret Whales Helping DeFi Function' and 'We Live In A Mempool'
- Built 0x Protocol into one of Ethereum's largest DEXs as Head of Product
- Appeared on Bloomberg Odd Lots to explain DeFi mechanics to mainstream finance audience (2021)
- Co-President of Stanford Venture Capital Club
- Named 'DeFi whiz' by Fortune magazine as one of Dragonfly's four core leaders

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Dragonfly Capital closes $650M Fund IV, with Schmidt central to the DeFi thesis. Fortune covers the firm's portfolio wins including Polymarket, Ethena, and Rain.
- **2026-03** — Schmidt appears in Dragonfly YouTube content on 'AI Agents Will Need Crypto to Work' / 'Where Crypto Meets AI', discussing agentic payments.
- **2025-07** — During the Roman Storm (Tornado Cash) federal trial, Schmidt invokes Fifth Amendment rights when sought as a witness; DOJ reportedly considered but did not file charges against him or Haseeb Qureshi.
- **2025-02** — Appeared in The Block discussing why this crypto cycle is different for venture capital.

## Links

- Website: https://tomhschmidt.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhschmidt
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/tomhschmidt
- GitHub: https://github.com/tomhschmidt

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tom-schmidt
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-29