Castle Island Ventures

We are a venture capital firm focused exclusively on public blockchains

About Us

We are a venture capital firm focused exclusively on public blockchains. We invest in infrastructure and application companies that will enable these transformative protocols to power services for the next billion users.

What We Do

We believe that permissionless blockchains represent a new form of politico-economic institution that will fundamentally alter market structures and spawn entirely new industries. 

We are focused on supporting entrepreneurs that are on a mission to build the infrastructure services to push these networks to their potential.

Our Team

We bring a wealth of experience building for cryptoassets networks from within the financial services industry to founders and early stage teams

Founding Partner

Matthew Walsh

Prior to founding Castle Island Ventures, Matt was a Vice President at Fidelity Investments where he led a number of the firm’s blockchain / cryptoasset initiatives. While at Fidelity, he led the creation, operationalization, and the investment strategy of a private fund focused exclusively on the cryptoasset sector.

Matt holds a BS in Business Administration from Babson College and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Founding Partner

Nic Carter

Before founding Castle Island, Nic Carter worked for Fidelity as their first cryptoasset analyst, where he devised research perspectives on public blockchains. He is the cofounder of Coin Metrics.

He holds a degree in philosophy from the University of St Andrews and an MSc Finance and Investment from the University of Edinburgh.

General Partner

Sean Judge

Prior to joining Castle Island Ventures, Sean was a Principal at Highland Capital Partners where he focused on early growth investments. Prior to Highland, Sean was an investor at Pomona Capital in New York and Hong Kong. Sean started his career covering financial institutions as an investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He holds a BA in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

General Partner

Ria Bhutoria

Prior to joining Castle Island Ventures, Ria was Director of Research at Fidelity Digital Assets where she worked on bitcoin and digital asset research. Before joining Fidelity, Ria held the role of Senior Research Analyst at Circle, where she built out the Circle Research platform.

Ria started her career as an Equity Research Associate on the Fintech and Payments team at Credit Suisse. She holds a BS in Finance from the New York University Stern School of Business.

Investment Associate

Wyatt Khosrowshahi


Prior to joining Castle Island Ventures, Wyatt worked as an investment analyst at Shima Capital with a focus on companies leveraging blockchain to improve existing web2 industries. Before Shima, Wyatt had stints at Matrix Capital, Foxhaven Asset Management, and Durable Capital Partners. Wyatt holds a BA in Political Science from Williams College.

Venture Partner

Rich Sgalardi


Prior to joining Castle Island Ventures, Rich was a Managing Director at Steadfast Financial where he led the firm’s cryptoasset investing. Prior to Steadfast, he was a convertible arbitrage trader at Admiral Capital. Rich holds a BA in Politics from Princeton University and an MBA from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

Venture Partner

Hunter Merghart


Prior to joining Castle Island Ventures, Hunter was Head of US at Bitstamp where he was hired as the first employee in the region. During his time there he was responsible for establishing, growing, and operating all aspects of the regulated crypto exchange's presence in the US. Before joining Bitstamp, Hunter was Head of Trading at Coinbase, where he started the institutional trading desk and helped establish the New York office.

Hunter started his career as an Equity Trader, having previously worked at Barclays, RBC, and Credit Suisse. He holds a BA in Economics from Colgate University.

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