Valkyrie, VanEck, and HKUST Join The TRON Grand Hackathon 2022 as Strategic Partners and Judges

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TRON DAO and BitTorrent Chain (BTTC) are thrilled to announce that Valkyrie Investments, VanEck, and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) will be joining as strategic partners and judges on the TRON Grand Hackathon 2022.

Meet our Strategic Partners

Valkyrie Investments is an investment manager focused on digital assets. Headquartered in Nashville, Valkyrie’s team combines deep technical expertise in this emerging asset class with decades of experience launching investment vehicles for a wide variety of market participants. The firm is led by financial industry veterans with decades of experience across firms.

Joining as an advisor and judge is Kristy-Leigh Minehan, the Technical Advisor of Valkyrie Investments with over a decade of experience in the blockchain industry. Prior to joining Valkyrie, Minehan worked at companies including Core Scientific, Genesis Mining, and others across multiple countries and blockchains. Kristy’s experience includes writing, mining, managing software, and contributing to the design and development of various proof-of-work and proof-of-stake protocols.

Kristy-Leigh Minehan said:

“We believe in investing in the future of decentralized technologies, and the TRON Grand Hackathon represents one of the most enterprising programs.”

VanEck, founded in 1955 and headquartered in New York City, is a leading global fund management company. VanEck was among the first asset managers to submit a Bitcoin ETF application to the SEC. They launched Bitcoin ETN (VBTC) in 2020, followed by Ethereum ETN (VETH) in 2021. The listing of TRON ETN (VTRX) follows Bitcoin and Ethereum, which is gaining market recognition as a leading blockchain platform globally.

Today, VanEck offers strategies with exciting exposures supported by well-designed investment processes. As of Dec.31, 2021, VanEck managed approximately $81.7 billion in assets, including mutual funds, ETFs, and institutional accounts. The firm’s capabilities range from core investment opportunities to more specialized exposures to enhance portfolio diversification.

Last September, the VanEck Vectors TRON ETN (VTRX) was listed in 14 EU countries, including on the Deutsche Börse, Euronext Paris, and Amsterdam.

Gabor Gurbacs, Director of Digital Assets Strategy at VanEck, will be judging the Hackathon projects built on TRON or BTTC. Gabor is a pioneer in the digital assets space. He is a leading voice in digital asset investing and market structure discussions with the U.S. and global regulators vital to the evolution of the first industry-standard digital assets indices.

Gabor Gurbacs, said:

“VanEck is excited to support the TRON Grand Hackathon. Events like this are crucial to build, grow and support the ecosystem.”

Tune into the Around the Block podcast on March 11 to hear Dave Uhryniak, Director of Blockchain Strategy at TRON DAO, and Gabor Gurbacs discuss exploring blockchain implementation and use cases from a macro perspective.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

HKUST is a public research university located at Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. Founded in 1991, HKUST is commonly regarded as one of the fastest-growing universities in the world. It was ranked 27th in the world and second in Hong Kong by QS 2021.

As the Director of Crypto Fintech Lab at HKUST, Professor Kani Chen will be joining us on the judging panel and on the Around the Block podcast on March 4 to discuss blockchain technology, use cases, and growth potential.

Prof. Chen, also the Program Director of MSc in Financial Mathematics and Co-Director of Risk Management and Business Intelligence, said:

“I’m both honored and excited to be a part of the TRON Grand Hackathon 2022. Looking forward to more in-depth collaborations between TRON DAO and HKUST.”

Make sure to check out the TRON DAO Forum, where members can interact, create threads, have questions answered, and participate in discussions about the crypto community.

Also, as part of the Hackathon, we will be hosting a few of our judges and partners on the Around the Block podcast series streamed live on TRON DAO Youtube and DLive Protocol (a truly decentralized live streaming platform).

TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized services boasting nearly 100M monthly active users. The TRON network has gained incredible traction in recent years, with over 79 million users on the blockchain, upwards of 2.8 billion transactions, and over $8 billion in total value locked. In addition, TRON hosts the largest circulating supply of USD Tether stablecoin across the globe, overtaking USDT on Ethereum in April 2021. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a purely community-governed DAO.

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