Hong Sun is an accomplished business executive with over 17 years of experience at the intersection of blockchain, finance, and SaaS, who is passionate about leveraging blockchain to shape the future of finance. Most recently, Hongzhe served as VP of Business Development at Paxos, where he played a critical role in scaling their crypto brokerage and stablecoin offerings, including BUSD, PYUSD, PAXG, and USDL. His leadership was pivotal in creating a go-to-market strategy for partners like Paypal and Fidelity that reaches more than 400 million users and 35 million institutions and merchants worldwide.
As the institutional contributor at Core, Hong is helping Core to achieve its mission of unlocking $2T in trapped bitcoin liquidity by delivering capital efficiency for financial market participants and supporting protocol developments that will usher in the next 10X wave in stablecoin growth.
Prior to Paxos, Hongzhe has founded and scaled multiple businesses, successfully driving market entry and revenue growth. His expertise spans product development, strategic partnerships, and team leadership, with a focus on harnessing blockchain technology to transform financial markets.
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Today, we sat down with Hong Sun to discuss his role at Core, his vision for the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the strategies driving Core’s growth.
What strategies are you applying at Core to drive its growth and adoption as the largest Bitcoin sidechain?
In the past two years, the Bitcoin space has changed a lot, becoming an investable asset class for institutional investors. While retail will always play a key part in crypto’s advancement, the maturity of this asset class and its investor profile means we need to create long-term value, offer more sophisticated custodial solutions, and provide better security.
With that in mind, my focus at Core has been on securing major integrations to boost the efficiency and usability of the protocol that matches investor appetite. A greater focus has also been on enhancing the developer talent and providing them with suitable technical and financial support for the expansion of the ecosystem. This has allowed us to strengthen our Core with high-value projects that allow our users to be part of the DeFi innovation while enjoying the massive upside and security of Bitcoin that no other asset inside or outside of crypto offers.
How are you leveraging your expertise in Web2 partnerships to bridge the gap between traditional enterprises and blockchain technology?
In Web2, innovation tends to take the backseat, but Web3 can’t afford to do so. Innovation is at the center of every protocol in the crypto ecosystem but where this space lacks is integration with other protocols and companies in the real world with real users. For this, we need simplified processes that make it easy for those outside the crypto circle to make use of this valuable but complex technology.
The TradFi world has already begun to wake up to all the benefits that crypto offers, especially Bitcoin. You combine this trillion-dollar asset class with the practical use case of efficient payment solutions and stable yields, and you can bridge these gaps with far more ease. My experience in the Web2 world has allowed me to help traditional enterprises ease their way into crypto while providing Bitcoin developers with pathways to drive Bitcoin’s real-world adoption.
What unique opportunities and resources does Core Ventures provide to builders on Core Chain?
For any blockchain to have a thriving ecosystem, it requires a talented network of developers building exciting applications for users to explore. Core Venture is a Bitcoin-focused venture fund where we are committed to driving innovation within the BTC ecosystem, which is the place to be in 2025. We envision a future where Bitcoin is the primary economic asset of digital, decentralized, and democratized finance.
To build this future, we offer access to funding opportunities through a network of stage-agnostic investors actively seeking promising ideas to support. Our curated network of crypto-centric angels, accelerators, and venture capitalists offers both financial backing and mentorship to projects with strong potential at various stages of their development. By bridging the gap between enthusiastic builders looking for capital to help bring their ideas to reality and industry veterans eager to nurture ambitious projects, we aim to create a robust ecosystem with resources and networking opportunities.
How do you see Bitcoin working out in a field dominated by Ethereum? Do you see one surpassing the other in leading the future of DeFi?
Ethereum pioneered smart contracts, giving rise to decentralized finance. But as we’ve been seeing this past couple of years, other blockchains have shown a lot of potential in capturing the mass’s interest and driving crypto adoption. However, no other chain can offer the security and robustness that Bitcoin can. Being the most trusted and battle-tested blockchain, Bitcoin provides the transparent, permissionless, and censorship-resistance foundation for a truly decentralized finance future.
Bitcoin’s role in DeFi has already started to grow, and it will further gain traction with functionalities like secure and reliable yield generation. This is exactly what has helped Core become the largest Bitcoin sidechain with over $750 million in TVL. But we can’t ignore the fact that Bitcoin has its limitations, which we are bridging with Ethereum-level composability. Together, these two largest networks offer unmatched security and expanding functionality to drive the global adoption of blockchain technology.
With Bitcoin’s recent price rise and growing institutional interest in Bitcoin Spot ETFs, how is Core positioned to capitalize on this momentum?
It’s been a significant year for Bitcoin as the trillion-dollar asset secured regulatory approval to be part of the institutional investor portfolios. The subsequent price rise has made the six-figure price tag per BTC simply a matter of “when,” putting the world’s first cryptocurrency on everyone’s radar—retail investors, institutions, and even governments. Bitcoin has shown its prowess, and with all eyes already on BTC, it has made it easier for us to get the ball rolling. Everyone wants a piece of it, and we are here to empower investors to put their BTC to good use.
With Core’s non-custodial staking solution, users take full advantage of the price appreciation while making use of the attractive risk-free yield option. This powerful solution enables both retail and institutions to make the most of this bull run and helps expand Bitcoin’s usability in the real world.
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