A&T Capital: Why We Invested in Hooked Protocol?

By A&T Capital

01 Funding Overview

Web3 social network Hooked Protocol has completed its seed round financing, with investors including Binance Labs, Sequoia India’s Surbana Capital (formerly Sequoia Seed Fund), and A&T Capital. The funding amount has not been disclosed.

Hooked Protocol aims to build a token-incentivized, community-driven social network that offers gamified user experiences. The team is currently integrating wallet and decentralized identity (DID) functionalities. The protocol will initially launch on BNB Chain, with plans to expand to other Layer 1 blockchains in the future.

02 Why We Invested in Hooked Protocol?

1 Investment Thesis

1. Application layer could dominate the next cycle, and user acquisition will be critical.

Application-layer trend: Over the past year and a half, despite lacking long-term sustainability, applications like Axie Infinity and Stepn have demonstrated strong cross-over appeal in short periods. Looking ahead to the next crypto cycle, as infrastructure matures and attracts substantial capital, we expect broader mainstream adoption of blockchain-based applications.

User acquisition is key: In this new market built atop blockchain infrastructure, how to acquire users will be a fundamental challenge every application must address effectively.

2. Strong team at Hooked; Binance ecosystem lacks a user acquisition engine—high potential for successful collaboration.

Hooked team: The core team brings extensive 2C marketing expertise and strong product development capabilities, both of which will elevate the quality and reach of Hooked’s offerings.

Gaps in Binance ecosystem: Currently, neither Binance Exchange nor the BSC chain ecosystem has a dominant Learn & Earn product. Such products are likely to become essential during the application-driven cycle, making this a potentially win-win partnership for both Binance and Hooked.

2 Industry Landscape

1. Growing number of application-layer experiments with increasingly sophisticated product design

Compared to the 2017 cycle, the proportion of application projects has significantly increased since 2020, with numerous breakout successes such as NBA Top Shot, Axie Infinity, Stepn, and Yuga Labs.

In contrast to CryptoKitties, projects like Axie and Stepn represent clear business model innovations, with substantially improved product completeness and usability.

3 Business Overview

1. Development stages:

Phase One: Single-product platform — Hooked's initial goal is to establish a crowdsourced application with built-in incentives. By combining gamified entertainment with incentive mechanisms, it aims to guide non-crypto users smoothly into Web3 and drive traffic to Web3 applications.

Learn & Earn example: Integrate key crypto concepts such as staking, claiming, and NFT minting into casual games. Users complete gameplay tasks while answering questions, earning rewards daily through participation.

Phase Two: X-to-Earn aggregator — As more users engage with and are educated on the Hooked platform, other x-to-earn platforms will be incentivized to collaborate with Hooked, further expanding its user base. Eventually, the platform will be capable of directing these users to other Web3 projects, including exchanges, GameFi, NFTs, DAOs, and more.

4 Comparable Companies & Valuation

About A&T Capital

A&T Capital is a venture capital fund focused on emerging disruptive technologies. The fund specializes in supporting startups from early to growth stages. Backed by five financial technology decacorns (private companies valued at over $10 billion), early supporters of distributed ledger technology, and a network of experienced product leaders, A&T Capital holds a unique advantage in helping the next generation of decentralized startups achieve large-scale real-world adoption.