Digital Daring: Financial maestro Sean Hung, CEO of Chiron Group, is steering a blockchain future

Sean Hung grew up in a family where finance was a natural subject of conversation around the dinner table. Both his parents were finance professionals, so dealing with numbers and financial information is embedded in his DNA, and from an early age this was his most likely future direction.

A career in finance subsequently blossomed, perhaps because he always seeks the next challenge, the next opportunity. Still young and fresh-faced, and never happy to rest on his laurels, he is now a big player in the digital assets industry as co-founder and CEO of Chiron Group.

Hung attended St Joseph’s College, a prestigious all-boys Catholic school in Hong Kong, before heading to the US to study for a double major in finance and marketing at Bryant University in Rhode Island, then an MBA at Boston’s Northeastern University. These enjoyable years on the East Coast led him to believe the US education system provides more opportunities to “think outside the box”.

More specifically, his degree helped him understand how businesses work. “You can’t do business without knowing the numbers, but just knowing the numbers without knowing how to push a product to market is also meaningless,” he observes.

Challenge-driven

Having completed his education, he stayed in Boston and joined Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest privately held asset managers, as an analyst in 2013. Though the experience was useful, he found his role in asset management – the traditional buy-side – a bit too slow-paced for his liking.

Spurred by a courageous character trait of continuously breaking out of his comfort zone, Hung switched continents in 2015 and flipped to the other side of the financial coin – the sell-side – in the guise of Cantor Fitzgerald in Hong Kong. Here, in high-pressure investment banking, results were everything and he thrived on the challenge.

As a director on the debt capital markets and special situations team, he relished the chance to meet so many interesting people and the faster pace of Hong Kong life, commenting: “It really rewards hard work and people who are trying to build a business for themselves.”

People-oriented

Connecting the dots between buyers and sellers, structuring unique deals, having to perform under pressure – all of this brought out the best in him. “It’s very difficult to convince people that you’re building a business without results,” he says. “It really drives you to do more than what you would normally comfortably do.”

A talkative and convivial young man, Hung became mindful of not just being results-driven in banking; he wanted to nurture long-lasting relationships forged through being genuine, irrespective of whether someone became a client or not. “Most business does not happen if it is purely transactional,” he shares. “By building these long-lasting relationships, even if business comes later, it comes naturally.”

Crypto calling

Hung could have stayed on in banking, but again some internal alarm bell told him to branch out into a brave new world. He saw “higher growth opportunities” elsewhere, especially in the crypto market – a digital innovation he had observed from an outside perspective for several years, but became determined to master by working on the inside.

Leaving Cantor Fitzgerald at the end of 2018, he was invited to join a team of 10 and build a startup called Diginex, whose aim was to create one of the first institutional crypto exchanges. He also served as director of a sister company, Diginex Solutions, which focused on blockchain ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) solutions to the problem of investors finding it difficult to verify the ESG metrics reported by companies.

“Blockchain, due to its immutable and transparent nature, adds credibility to the data being consumed by investors,” says Hung, who believes ESG-related investing is a global trend that will sustain through the foreseeable future.

New asset class

Once their digital assets exchange was listed on Nasdaq in 2020, Hung decided to exit and seek pastures new yet again. With a few partners, he set up Chiron Group to focus on investing and growing businesses in the burgeoning digital assets field. Aside from investing in high-growth, early-stage projects, Chiron also eyes more stable, later-stage digital-asset infrastructure companies such as those in the trading, media and software sectors.

“As an investor, we like to take an active role in the company, taking on board seats or advisory roles, to make sure we are able to help drive certain business decisions for our portfolio,” says Hung.

He believes investing in a comprehensive range of players in the crypto field means companies can tap into a broad skill set and would be more amenable to receiving investment. “We can provide you support from the media arm; we can provide you support from liquidity perspective and so on,” he adds.

Bad actors

Of course, cryptocurrencies and the digital assets industry itself have gone through a torrid time recently, but Hung is undeterred. He comments: “It is undeniable that during the early stages of the digital assets, there were a lot of bad players as it was an unregulated field. That’s why it’s especially important for us as investors to be diligent and identify who are the real players.”

One bright spot of scandals like the bankruptcy of FTX and Three Arrows Capital crash is, he says, an acceleration in the onset of regulation around the world. This can only benefit the digital assets industry, especially given that many investors are scared of its opaqueness.

“Without regulation, digital assets will always exist in the dark and traditional investors will remain sceptical about the asset class. It also bars all the major traditional finance institutions from investing in it due to compliance concerns,” he notes.

Gaming insights

Undoubtedly a driven person, Hung is also a family man who cherishes his weekend downtime. Gaming has always been a big part of his life, and these days his two children sit with him as he follows his favourite esports teams. “Esports will be such a natural form of entertainment for my kids growing up so they won’t have second thoughts about them,” he opines.

Such is his love for video games that he has started to invest in promising and growing gaming companies and actively seeks to serve on their advisory boards. Hung intends to bring more value to these companies through his expertise in capital markets.

One such venture – Insights.gg – is a software company that serves the esports community by recording and analysing gameplay through computer vision and AI. “Imagine an automated analyst that allows individual players and coaches to make better decisions on how to better their game strategy and gameplay mechanics,” he says excitedly of a future digital world he is helping to shape.

NFTs: Future of investment or another bubble waiting to burst?

The world is now divided into two types of people: those who invest in NFTs and those who don’t. As mind-boggling as it is, an increasing number of people now use digital currency to purchase digital goods – or rather the certificates that legitimises ownership of said items – without ever having to physically touch them at all.

culture-cryptocurrency-nft-blockchain--might-are-nfts-investment-hongkong-beeple — 5000 days NFT artwork by Beeple

NFTs have been around since 2014, but they were relatively low profile before the end of the decade. They really began sweeping the internet last year, when this novel technology went mainstream and disrupted industries across the board, especially the art world. The NFT landscape has rapidly evolved over the past 12 months, with more institutions around the world and some governments recognising cryptocurrency as legal tender and NFTs as strong investments.

Even a traditional international art auction house like Sotheby’s has launched its own Metaverse dedicated to NFTs and digital art. So, those few who still staunchly prefer cash in hand might just have to come to terms with this new digitalised transaction that is revolutionising the financial, investment and creative sectors.

Cryptocurrency and NFTs: What’s the difference?
An NFT (non-fungible token) is a unique digitalised certificate that entitles one, and only one, person to exclusive ownership of an asset. Cryptocurrency is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Doge, used to purchase NFTs. Blockchain is the platform on which all cashless digital transactions happen. The process is calculated by a large group of computers and recorded publicly, but anonymously, on the internet to ensure everything adds up. This provides transparency and avoids human error or the risk of financial mismanagement.

Yet, the use of digital ownership tokens remains controversial. While championed by artists and tech-savvy investors, others are cautious, citing a volatile, unregulated marketplace. Environmental campaigners, in particular, decry the huge amount of energy they eat up. What does that mean for Hong Kongers looking to invest in NFTs? And is embracing crypto a positive move for society? We break down the pros and cons…

culture-cryptocurrency-nft-blockchain--might-are-nfts-investment-hongkong-shoutartgallery-andrewmok-offgod-exhibition — Andrew Mok’s debut solo exhibition at Shout Art Hub & Gallery, Hysan place

Democratising art and the value of scarcity
NFTs spurred a creative boom for developers and artists last year. Helping to democratise art, they allow creators control and ownership of their created content while also sharing deserved revenue, and offering involvement in a community of like-minded individuals. The key takeaway here is that NFTs are one-of-a-kind, non-fungible and certified original tokens of an object, whose value is dictated by the community, not an institution or an art market.

culture-cryptocurrency-nft-blockchain--might-are-nfts-investment-hongkong-james-jean-forager — NFT artwork by James Jean Forager

Pro: They certainly benefitted Hong Kong high schooler, illustrator and graphic artist Andrew Mok. Also known as Offgod, Mok is a cover artist for social media rappers such as Bella Poarch, The Kid Laroi, and the late Juice Wrld. He was invited to do an NFT exhibition – his first solo exhibition – at Shout Art Hub & Gallery in Hysan Place – a gallery dedicated to NFTs and digital art and providing global support for local artists. “Offgod’s skill is very mature and creative with his own style and he has over 200,000 followers on social media from all over the world,” says gallery founder Christopher Tang. “The feedback from the market exceeded my expectations. We sold every art piece by the end of the first week – and some pieces pre-sold before the exhibition opened, which for a [then] 17-year old local artist is a miracle.”

Con: Difficulties arise when talking about value and how volatile the NFT marketplace can be. Unlike stocks or bonds, there is no way of knowing the intrinsic value of an NFT investment. What makes a successful NFT largely depends on how the popularity of the brand is, and how strongly the community feels about it.

The scarcity principle used in economics, social psychology and manipulating consumer behaviour theorises that greater value is placed on items that are scarce or in low supply, but in the case of NFTs, it is perhaps the exclusive ownership of a token that creates value rather than the uniqueness of the object itself. Why else would crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi pay US$2.9 million for Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet?

Pushing the boundaries of technology

There is one thing that is undeniable about the technology behind blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and it is that it has pushed the boundaries of how society and systems utilise computers for the purposes of validation and verification. As evidence by the 2008 financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, there is room for error and risk of mismanaging financial systems when regulators are in a position to control funds.

Pro: Blockchain technology is a complex system that allows for strong security since it acts as a shared, immutable ledger; it is almost impossible to hack, alter and manipulate because all transaction records are publicly documented, in contrast to transactions conducted on traditional platforms.

Cons: However, ideal and utilitarian the blockchain is in theory, without the middleman or an institutional buffer between consumers and retail, NFTs leave investors vulnerable. Their value is volatile, and there is still the potential for fraud, scam and theft during transfers within the NFT marketplace, despite the security of blockchain and the anonymity it allows. The process and language can be complex as well, especially for those new to the NFT scene.

If the goal is to truly democratise blockchain and the NFT market for the masses, the exponential growth will require an institutional buffer to aid buyers and investors to oversee the marketplace, as risk in their trade is still very much present.

culture-cryptocurrency-nft-blockchain--might-are-nfts-investment-hongkong-boredape — Bored Ape NFTs by Bored Ape Yacht Club

Future or fad?
Whichever side one stands on the debate of NFTs as the future of investment, there is no denying the good they have reaped for artists and creators, inspiring them to take the lead in how their own creations are presented in the market. Artists have been enabled to deal directly with buyers and control the revenue they earn, while building communities of like-minded individuals with the same interests, fostering a positive and empowering influence for creators.

However, there are fears that a new law that will come into effect next year will stymie the growth of cryptocurrency in the city. The new legislation states that virtual asset trading platforms will face regulations and be monitored through a licensing system to prevent illegal activities, particularly money laundering. This will undermine the main point of decentralising, but perhaps it is a middle ground both sides can come together on.

Monumental collectibles that recently hit top bids

The last few months have witnessed some monumental items hit top bids, from an astronomical moon memento to a vintage Bugatti to a cryptocurrency musical album, these are the latest collectibles to have gone under the gavel and collected large sums.

A meteoric success that landed astronomical bids
Promising the moon might be the last desperate recourse for ill-starred romantics, but it may no longer be an aspiration beyond the reach of everyone. As proof of this, one of the star performers at a recent online auction conducted by Christie’s New York was a lunar meteorite that made its way to the Deep Impact: Martian, Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites sale.

Weighing a mere 123.9g and measuring 43mm in diameter, it was initially estimated to raise some HK$200,000 at auction. However, it finally went under the gavel for HK$3.97million. Designated as NMW 12691, the moon rock in question was the stand-out item among an impressive 250kg trove of space debris that was uncovered two years ago, prior to it being sculpted into a moon-resembling sphere. With only 750kg of lunar meteorites known to exist on Earth, its rarity alone makes it something very special. Value for money or lunar lunacy? The jury’s still out.

A stellar Botticelli
Taking retail therapy pretty much to the max, one particularly monied and mysterious collector spent some US$114.5 million on a fine selection of high-end artworks at Sotheby’s Master Paintings and Sculpture Sale, with their total expenditure accounting for about 80 percent of the day’s sales. Among the highlights of their haul was one very special piece – the Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel (dating back to around 1480 AD) by Sandro Botticelli, the celebrated Florentine painter.

The 15th-century 23in x 15in tempera-on-poplar panel masterpiece, which was one of the acknowledged highlights of the live-streamed auction, has rarely come up for sale. Indeed, it was last sold at auction in December 1982, when it changed hands for some US$1.1 million. Its recent reappearance not only caught the imagination of almost every prospective virtual bidder, but also went on to be the highwater mark of the event, ultimately commanding a price of US$92.2 million. This eminently immense winning bid sees it ranked as the second-most-expensive Old Master painting ever to be sold at auction, surpassed only by Italian maestro Leonardo da Vinvi’s Salvator Mundi (circa 1500).

A Gallic symbol: Pride of French Motoring
Bugatti, the rightly-renowned luxury French automobile manufacturer is justly synonymous with the world’s most sophisticated and high-performance sports cars. The brand has also long taken a lead in terms of chassis design, earning a cult-following among keen collectors, many of whom are only too willing to invest sizable sums in securing the marque’s most memorable models.

A case in point is Bonham’s Legends of The Road auction, which featured a rare 1937 Bugatti Type 57S that fetched HK$40.1 million as part of a London-hosted online sale. Off the market for a considerable period, this exceptional vintage motor vehicle only returned to the spotlight after being in a private collection for some 50 years. It was, however, presented in almost pristine condition, with the original black paintwork of its chassis, along with its spotless cream leather interior and coachwork all but spotlessly preserved.Thought to be one of only three special lightweight models produced for the 1936 Grand Prix Season, it was famed for being the fastest road car of its day.

Token Bid
Cryptocurrency, that much fabled virtual coinage, has exploded in virtually every area of life, from payments and fund transfers to humanitarian-minded technological developments. So, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the worlds of digital music and cryptocurrency have now collided. In fact, many in the underground and virtual music space have long had a declared interest in this innovative technology, but none to the same extent as Justin David Blau, the producer, DJ and cryptocurrency enthusiast better known as DJ 3LAU.

In what has been billed as ground-breaking moment for the joint evolution of music and technology, Blau – in partnership with Origin, a San Francisco-based blockchain platform – launched a unique auction to commemorate the third anniversary of Ultraviolet, one of his most ground-breaking albums.The world’s first tokenised musical product, it set a new record for a single NFT (non-fungible cryptographic token) auction when a 10-minute bidding war saw the special limited edition album sell for a jaw-dropping US$11.7 million after 33 would-be owners had battled it out. The winner now has the opportunity to collaborate with the DJ on a new single.

Block Trooper: Jehan Chu, founder of blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic

Long a supporter of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies, Jehan Chu now helms Kenetic, a venture capital firm helping others looking to break into the industry.

Kenetic is an interesting business. As its founder and managing partner, how exactly do you define it?
Essentially, it’s a venture capital firm, one that supports start-up companies at a very early stage. In particular, we help to fund entrepreneurs in the blockchain sector, while also providing them with advice and guidance, allowing them to realise their visions of the technology’s future. I firmly believe that blockchain represents the next stage in the evolution of the internet – a new technology that will underpin developments over the next 50 years. With that in mind, Kenetic is a bespoke vehicle designed to help facilitate that evolution.

At what point did you decide the time was right to launch Kenetic?
We opened Kenetic in 2016 when it became apparent that no Asian venture capital business was really focusing on blockchain technology. At the time, those of us who had first ventured into the bitcoin and blockchain space knew something special was
taking place. We also believed that, without support, it wouldn’t necessarily fulfil its potential. That’s where Kenetic comes in – we support those people crazy enough to try and make their dreams come true.

What was it about blockchain / cryptocurrency that first drew you in?
Well, while I was studying International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, I taught myself how to code html. After that, I went to work in New York coding as a front-end developer during the first dot.com boom. In 2013, I first came across Bitcoin. Once I started researching it, I immediately fell down that particular rabbit hole. One of the things that drew me to Bitcoin was my love of decentralisation and the idea of returning power to the people. I soon started a number of related communities, including a local Ethereum group, one of the earliest such associations in Hong Kong, as a means of helping to provide investment advice for those interested in the sector. In 2016, I went fulltime, leaving my job as an art dealer to focus solely on providing blockchain and cryptocurrency investment advice.

Why do you think cryptocurrency has become such an attractive investment option?
When I started out in cryptocurrency, nobody wanted to hear about it. It was, at best, a joke and, at worst, seen as somehow improper. Now, though, it seems as though everyone realises how important cryptocurrency is, especially with regard to decentralisation. If you look at what’s happening in the world right now, centralised systems are failing, making decentralisation seem an increasingly appealing prospect. Even companies like UBS, JP Morgan, Visa and PayPal are turning their attention to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It took a little time but it’s happening.

“ Kenetic aims to support people crazy enough to try and make their dreams come true”

Aside from Bitcoin, which other cryptocurrencies do you see as significant?
While Bitcoin is really a payment token or a store-in value token, Ethereum is an application-based blockchain with easily the largest community of developers and applications. Bitcoin is akin to gold, where Ethereum is more like oil – it is used to power things, whether an engine, a machine or a factory. The other interesting one is Polkadot, which is similar to Ethereum but has a very different approach in that it’s really trying to create a network of blockchains.

What are the some of the most common cryptocurrency misconceptions that you encounter?
A lot of people think that as cryptocurrency is not “backed” by anything, it doesn’t have any intrinsic value. This is inherently untrue. The value of Bitcoin and other types of cryptocurrency stems from the subscription and investment of the community, both in terms of dollars and effort. This infuses cryptocurrency and blockchain with value, be it in terms of its use in applications or in having a multi-million-dollar market cap. Basically, they are backed by millions of people who say there is value and are willing to put their money and commitment into them.

You co-founded Social Alpha Foundation, a blockchain / social impact non-profit. What can you tell us about its aims and ambitions?
I was raised by my parents to be very generous and try to support communities. As a result, I have always thought it was important never to take anything for granted and to use my resources to help others. In line with this, the idea behind Social Alpha Foundation is to support blockchain projects that are looking to create social impact. The first grant we made was to a small start-up in South Africa, which was providing official identity documents to children who were either too poor to apply for them or were refugees. What they would do is use blockchain technology to track these kids and verify an identity for them. Right now, though, we’re focused on environmental issues and have recently given a US$250,000 grant to Open Earth, a Yale University initiative aiming to use blockchain to help combat climate change.

In terms of cryptocurrency-friendliness, how do you see Hong Kong ranking on the global scale?
Hong Kong is easily one of the most significant centres in the world when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency and is probably the most important such destination in Asia. This is partly because the regulation is very engaged here and the regulators
are very knowledgeable. The entrepreneurial spirit is also very strong and there are a lot of start-ups, especially in the financial sector. There are also many people in institutional and more traditional companies across a variety of different sectors that have become engaged with blockchain and cryptocurrency. All in all, I think that I’m very fortunate to be in Hong Kong as there’s just so much going on here in terms of both cryptocurrency and blockchain.

You also invest in alternative proteins, notably Impossible Foods…
That’s largely because I have been going mostly vegan. I do what is called a 95-percent diet – depending on which week it is, I have only one or two animal protein meals in a seven-day period, staying vegan for the rest of the time. The fact that this has boosted my own health made me want to invest in initiatives such as Impossible Foods, as well as other alternative protein sources. My cholesterol has gone way down; my sleep,
skin and digestion are all better and it’s good for the planet too.

You are also big on meditation…
I actually practice Vipassana, an ancient breathing practice favoured by Buddha as the root of mindfulness and all other forms of meditation. When I was first introduced to it, it was quite a challenge – I had to undergo 10 days of silent retreat without
reading, using a phone or having any human contact. During that time, though, I learned how to quieten my mind, focus and use breathing to achieve a state of centeredness and hyperawareness. While it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, it also transformed it in a very positive way.

Thank you.

Interview by: Roberliza Eugenio
Photos: Jack Law
Video: Andy Wan
Art Direction & Styling: Jhoshwa Ledesma