Kronos Research is a Taipei-based quantitative trading and market-making firm that also operates a venture investment arm focused on the crypto and Web3 space. Founded in 2018, the firm built its early reputation as one of Asia's more active algorithmic trading desks, providing liquidity across centralized and decentralized exchanges. Its transition into venture investing grew naturally from its trading infrastructure and network of protocol relationships across the region.
The firm is closely linked to the founding of WOO Network, a trading and liquidity platform that emerged from Kronos's internal tools. This connection gave Kronos early-stage exposure to exchange infrastructure and DeFi projects at a time when the Taiwan crypto ecosystem was gaining international visibility. Public information about total assets under management is limited; Kronos has not disclosed formal AUM figures for its venture activities.
In November 2023, Kronos Research suffered a significant security incident when unauthorized access to API keys resulted in losses of approximately $26 million. The firm confirmed the breach publicly and halted trading temporarily. It later resumed operations, but the event drew attention to operational security risks facing trading firms that also manage external capital. The incident remains one of the more notable exchange-adjacent hacks of that year.
Notable investments
- WOO Network (WOO X) – Kronos co-founded this hybrid liquidity and trading platform, which grew into a functioning CEX and DeFi layer with its own token, $WOO. This is the firm's most public venture bet and its clearest lead investment.
- Early-stage DeFi infrastructure projects – Kronos has backed a small number of protocol-layer and tooling projects across the EVM ecosystem, though specific names and deal terms have not been broadly disclosed.
With 11 tracked portfolio companies and one confirmed lead investment, Kronos operates as a concentrated, operationally involved investor rather than a spray-and-pray fund. Its reported retail ROI of 0.63 reflects below-par mark-to-market performance across the portfolio at time of measurement, consistent with the broader downturn in altcoin valuations through 2022–2024.
Team
Jack Tan is the founder and CEO of Kronos Research. He was instrumental in spinning WOO Network out of Kronos and has been one of the more visible Taiwan-based figures in crypto trading circles. Mark Pimentel co-founded WOO Network alongside Tan. Beyond these two names, public information about the broader Kronos venture team is limited. The firm does not maintain a detailed public-facing team page for its investment activities.
Recent activity
Since the 2023 security incident, Kronos has maintained a lower public profile on the venture side. No major new fund announcements or significant portfolio additions have been confirmed in 2024 or early 2025. The firm continues to operate its trading and market-making business, which remains its core revenue engine. Whether it is actively deploying into new deals or pausing to manage existing positions is not clear from publicly available sources.
Kronos sits in an interesting position within the Asian crypto ecosystem: it has operational depth from its trading heritage and a direct stake in one functioning exchange product through WOO. However, its venture track record remains thin by public measure, and the 2023 breach added reputational friction. Founders seeking a strategically connected Taiwan-based backer with exchange-side market-making relationships may find Kronos relevant, particularly for projects where liquidity access matters early. Expectations around valuation discipline and deal pace should be calibrated to its relatively small, concentrated portfolio.
