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Mysten Labs
Mysten Labs was founded by former executives and engineers from Meta's defunct Novi/Diem project, including CEO Evan Cheng, CTO Sam Blackshear, CPO...
Mysten Labs
Mysten Labs was founded by former executives and engineers from Meta's defunct Novi/Diem project, including CEO Evan Cheng, CTO Sam Blackshear, CPO Adeniyi Abiodun, and Chief Cryptographer Kostas Chalkias. The firm emerged in late 2021 to build foundational technologies for decentralized networks, with a primary focus on Sui, its flagship layer-1 blockchain. Its wealth origin lies not in a family fortune but in venture-backed startup equity, making it an atypical entrant in any family-office conversation. The firm's deployment strategy centers entirely on Sui's ecosystem. Rather than acting as a passive allocator across asset classes, Mysten Labs directs capital into research, protocol development, and native blockchain products — including Sui, the Move programming language, the Seal encryption protocol, the Enoki customer-experience platform, the Walrus decentralized storage protocol, and DeepBook, an on-chain central limit order book. Confirmed investors from its 2022 raise include a16z Crypto, Jump Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs, Franklin Templeton, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Apollo Crypto. Geographic reach spans North America and the Middle East, with offices from Palo Alto to Dubai and engineering hubs in London and Athens. Mysten Labs has not disclosed a total AUM or a cumulative deployment figure, and its funding history is publicly reported only through venture rounds. Its 2022 Series B raised $300 million at a valuation of approximately $2 billion (per The Block, 2022). The firm operates adjacent ecosystem vehicles, including Sui Wallet and SuiPlay0x1, a handheld gaming device designed to natively run blockchain games. In August 2025, Mysten Labs appointed Mustafa Bassam, formerly of Goldman Sachs' digital assets team, to expand institutional partnerships and stablecoin infrastructure (per the firm, August 2025). Mysten Labs' structural distinction is architectural: it is a for-profit software company whose core product is a public blockchain. Unlike a typical venture fund, it does not charge management fees or draw down commitments in the traditional sense. It funds ecosystem development by deploying treasury tokens and partnering with external venture firms, a hybrid model that aligns its balance-sheet incentives with protocol adoption — and makes its financial performance inseparable from Sui's market capitalization. Succession and governance remain concentrated in the five-member founding team.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Palo Alto
Corporate office
Palo Alto, CA, United States
Additional offices
San Francisco, CA · Chicago, IL · Santa Monica, CA · Los Angeles, CA · Seattle, WA · New Castle, DE · Nassau, Bahamas · London, United Kingdom · Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Principals
Evan Cheng
Co-Founder, CEO
Sam Blackshear
Co-Founder, CTO
Adeniyi Abiodun
Co-Founder, CPO
Kostas Chalkias
Co-Founder, Chief Cryptographer
George Danezis
Co-Founder, Chief Scientist
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Mysten Labs?
Mysten Labs does not operate as a traditional fund with an investment committee. Product and protocol development decisions are shaped by the five co-founders: Evan Cheng (CEO), Sam Blackshear (CTO), Adeniyi Abiodun (CPO), Kostas Chalkias (Chief Cryptographer), and George Danezis (Chief Scientist). Capital allocation for ecosystem grants and developer incentives is guided by the product roadmap rather than a standalone investment team.
Is Mysten Labs structured as a family office or does it operate more like a venture firm?
It is neither a family office nor a venture firm. Mysten Labs is a core-infrastructure company that builds and governs the Sui blockchain. It raised venture capital in two rounds — a $36 million Series A in 2021 and a $300 million Series B in 2022 — which funds product development rather than a portfolio of external investments.
Does Mysten Labs participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Mysten Labs does not make fund commitments or pursue financial deals in the traditional sense. Its capital flows into protocol development, ecosystem grants, and the creation of native products — such as the Walrus storage protocol and DeepBook order book — all built directly on Sui.
Which sectors does Mysten Labs explicitly avoid?
Mysten Labs has no publicly stated exclusion list, but its activity is tightly constrained to blockchain infrastructure and the Sui ecosystem. It does not allocate capital to public equities, real estate, private credit, hedge funds, or any asset class outside Sui's developer tooling and adoption campaigns.
How does Mysten Labs source proprietary deal flow?
Mysten Labs generates its own pipeline through Sui's grant programs, hackathons, and its network of venture backers — including a16z Crypto, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Coinbase Ventures. The firm's concentration on the Move programming language and its Novo/Diem engineering pedigree give it a direct line to developers building parallel-execution smart contracts, a niche few other teams can credibly support.
Does Mysten Labs maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
There is no public evidence that Mysten Labs operates a philanthropic foundation or donor-advised fund. The firm's website and public filings do not mention any charitable vehicle separate from its protocol-building operations.
What is Mysten Labs's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
Mysten Labs does not co-invest as a limited partner alongside external GPs in the manner of a family office or institutional allocator. Third-party venture funds — such as those listed as investors in its own rounds — occasionally back Sui ecosystem projects independently, but Mysten Labs itself acts as a protocol sponsor and grant issuer rather than a syndicate participant.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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