Interview: Why Cathay's Marguerite de Tavernost Is Still Bullish On Web3

The investment world may be increasingly skeptical of Web3-related themes such as crypto, blockchain, and NFTs, but Marguerite de Tavernost believes the negativity couldn't be more wrong.

"There have been bear markets in the past, but every time it comes back stronger," she said. "The foundation and the base layers are being set. If you look at the market share and total value of the crypto market, we are only at the tip of the iceberg."

Two years ago, de Tavernost joined global investment firm Cathay Innovation at its Paris offices where she oversees the Cathay Ledger fund. The early-stage venture fund is a partnership between the global investment firm and Ledger, the Paris-based crypto hardware wallet company that has become a major force in the Decentralized Finance movement. The fund targets cryptocurrencies, DeFI, blockchain, NFTs, DAOs, and tokenization of everything. 

While de Tavernost acknowledged that many players in the investment space have retreated from blockchain due to market volatility, she said that Cathay sees this as short-sighted. She believes in the value of these technologies, especially their potential to integrate across various industries in a way that mirrors the adoption of the Internet.

"I think a lot of people who are not completely ingrained in the industry are just surfing the waves and don't understand it," she said. "I think there is a market situation that fails to understand that is fundamentally a long-term game. It's all about putting in place the structures and the foundations of the crypto industry so that it can become more mainstream."