在美國的醫療門診市場中，真正限制診所成長的往往不是資金，而是那些跟看診毫無關係的瑣事。據統計，美國診所平均要耗費高達三分之一的時間處理非臨床事務，其中絕大部分是處理財務工作。考慮到美國醫療業是個 5.9 兆美元規模的市場，以及全美有著超過 35 萬家獨立診所，這樣的不效率令人難以想像。

長久以來，為了解決這個痛點，這些診所被迫使用非為他們量身打造的工具，包含費用報銷平台、會計軟體，採購系統等，靠著東拼西湊來應付系統上的落差。即便如此，還是無法真正解決效率低落的問題。

Nitra 正是為了填補這個缺口而生。他們為美國診所打造了一站式的財務與工作流程平台：包含專為醫療產業發行的信用卡、費用管理、帳單支付，以及整合了超過 35 萬種醫療用品 SKU 的採購平台。

解決一個 5.9 兆美元市場的痛點當然極具吸引力。但單靠市場夠大遠不足以成就一家偉大的企業。我們投資決策的核心，實際上是 Nitra 的創辦人 Timothy Hwang。在創辦 Nitra 之前，他曾走過一段傳奇的創業旅程：從擠在廉價的 Motel 6 汽車旅館，一路走到紐約證券交易所（NYSE）敲鐘。如今，他選擇重返起點，挑戰美國醫療體系中最棘手的難題。

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從國會山莊到矽谷

和大部分典型的矽谷創業家故事不同，成為創業家前，Tim 原本志在政壇。在華盛頓特區長大的他，青少年時期就創辦了一個家教非營利組織，並將收益捐作弱勢兒童的開學用品。18 歲時，他成功當選郡教育委員會的委員，拿下 3.8 萬張選票、掌管 5 億美元預算，並肩負起 6 萬名員工的生計。隨後，他加入歐巴馬的總統競選團隊，擔任地區組織幹事。對 Tim 而言，政治從來都不是抽象的理念，而是一套能大規模動員群眾、朝共同目標邁進的系統。

這股對於「動員群眾，齊心達成目標」的信念及熱愛始終如一，但 Tim 對於政治的想法隨後發生了改變。身為少數族裔，看著茶黨運動（Tea Party Movement）重塑美國政治版圖，Tim 開始思考：從政真的是他能發揮最大影響力的一條路嗎？

帶著這樣的疑問，他跟隨同儕來到矽谷，並在普林斯頓大學就讀期間，透過引薦認識了 Jack Dorsey 並加入 Square。這段經歷徹底改變了他的視角。他意識到，打造一家公司和打一場選戰的驅動力如出一轍：一個值得解決的問題、一股支撐你走下去的強大信念，以及號召眾人與你同行的能力。唯一的差別是，商業世界的反饋速度快多了。

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從父母的地下室走向紐約證交所

2013 年，Tim 與共同創辦人 Jonathan Chen 拿著 Plug & Play 的一筆小額種子資金，創辦了政策與市場情報 SaaS 平台 FiscalNote。在初期為了省錢，公司註冊地直接登記在 Tim 父母的地下室，整個創辦團隊更是擠在一間狹小的 Motel 6 的房間內長達數個月，只為打造出 MVP。之後，在急需資金又欠缺人脈的情況下，他們在某天半夜寄了一封 cold mail 給知名投資人 Mark Cuban，沒想到 Cuban 馬上回信。這封信件隨後開啟了一場長達六小時的即時 Due Diligence ，面對許多沒準備過的問題，兩位創辦人甚至得臨場即興發揮才能招架他犀利的提問。但這招奏效了，Cuban 最後決定投資 FiscalNote。

從那一刻起，這股敢拚、無所畏懼的基因就深植於公司。FiscalNote 在之後發展迅速，不到五年的時間內，團隊擴張至 200 多人，營收突破千萬美元。

2018 年完成 D 輪融資後，FiscalNote 迎來了與經濟學人集團旗下 CQ Roll Call，也是 FiscalNote 主要競爭對手的正面對決。Tim 找上一位與著名的羅斯柴爾德家族（同時也是經濟學人集團大股東）有交情的大學好友，成功約到了 CQ Roll Call 的執行長。對方以為這只是一場前輩指導後輩的閒聊，不料 Tim 直接攤牌：若不把數據部門賣給 FiscalNote，就準備迎戰一個資金充沛、且產品明顯優於 CQ Roll Call 的強勁對手。這場會面結束後，那位執行長帶走了一份被收購的投資意向書。最終，收購案順利落幕，奠定了 FiscalNote 在產業中的霸主地位。2022 年 8 月，公司正式在紐交所掛牌上市，如今服務全球超過 6,000 家機構，涵蓋過半的財富 500 強企業與破千個美國聯邦政府機構。

公司成功上市後，Tim 轉換了自己的角色，開始經營一家橫跨金融科技、國防與氣候科技的 Venture Studio。儘管有趣，但他總覺得少了點什麼。經過一段時間的探索後 Tim 才找到答案：他懷念那種捲起袖子在第一線拚搏的實戰感。與此同時，上述提到美國診所體系中的不效率，作為他職涯中所見過最大的未解難題，不斷在他眼前浮現。於是，他與 Jonathan Chen 再次聯手創立 Nitra。

醫療產業看似遙遠，但 Tim 在 FiscalNote 累積了十年的實戰經驗完美契合醫療市場的特性：如何贏得非科技原生傳統機構買家的信任、駕馭與合規高度相關的工作流程，並開發出能無縫融入日常營運的軟體。政府機構、律師事務所和醫療診所其實非常相似：它們都是在繁瑣法規限制下運作的專業服務機構，任何帳務疏失都會帶來財務與合規的雙重災難。當 Tim 和 Jonathan 重新踏上旅程打造 Nitra 時，他們帶著的是在 FiscalNote 打磨了十年的歷練。

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為什麼是 Nitra？為什麼是現在？

產品上線三年來，成長數據呈現驚人的複利效應。Nitra 已成功協助 700 多家診所導入系統，最新的季度總交易額（GTV）年增率高達 9.3 倍。我們也看到越來越多診所以信用卡為敲門磚，進而採用 Nitra 所提供，包含費用管理、帳單支付與採購系統在內的全面財務管理系統。

展望未來，一個直覺的問題會是：AI 將如何顛覆現有醫療診所的工作流程？而 Nitra 正在回答這個問題。如今，Nitra 的 AI Agent 已經能處理平台上的各種任務，從發行虛擬卡、下訂採購單，到標記異常費用等；而用於病患預約排程的語音 AI，及支援臨床工作流程的 AI 模組也將於今年上線。隨著這些工具更方方面面地串入診所的工作流程，我們觀察到的是，Nitra 正在掌握通用型平台無法觸及的深層數據：每一筆流經診所、綁定特定供應商、藥品或療程的資金流向，並以此來提供給診所更好的服務。多年來，診所一直在拼湊那些從未為它們設計的工具；而當基礎設施終於是量身打造的，它們不再需要東拼西補。

與此同時，AI 時代正加速傳統產業的數位轉型，而醫療保健無疑是其中最大的一塊拼圖。Tim 擁有駕馭這種產業特性的成功實績：FiscalNote 曾將數據情報成功打入政府機構、國會辦公室與律師事務所。這些客戶同樣受制於繁瑣法規、對軟體陌生，且抗拒改變。他深知如何贏得這些人的信任、讓產品成為他們日常營運不可或缺的一部分，並藉此擴展版圖。這份經驗與 Nitra 正在做的事完美契合。

是的，「市場夠大」、「時機正好」，「產品也已獲驗證」都可以是我們投資的原因。但貫穿這一切的核心，是我們對創辦人的信念。Tim 和 Jonathan 選擇在成功 IPO 後將自己歸零，挑選了美國經濟中結構最複雜的市場，帶著當初那份草根的拼勁，以及如今更深厚的商業智慧重新出發。Tim 曾把一家公司從父母的地下室一路帶進紐交所，如今他回來挑戰更艱鉅的任務。單憑這一點，就比任何市場規模預估更能說明 Nitra 的無窮潛力。在他們追求更高目標的第二段創業旅程中，我們很榮幸能與之並肩同行。

In US outpatient care, the limiting factor isn’t capital. It’s the operational drag. Physicians and clinic administrators spend up to a third of their work hours on non-patient-facing tasks, and a significant share of that burden falls on financial operations. Multiply that across 350,000+ independent group practices in a $5.9T market, and the problem becomes staggering. The tools available to most practices were never built for them. The entire stack — expense platforms, accounting software, procurement systems — was architected for a different kind of company, and practices have been patching around that mismatch ever since.

Nitra was founded to close that gap. The company provides an all-in-one finance and workflow platform for US practices: a healthcare-native credit card, expense management, bill pay, and a procurement marketplace aggregating 350,000+ medical SKUs. 

Indeed, a $5.9T market is exciting, but markets don’t build companies. Underlying our thesis is Timothy Hwang — a founder who has already navigated the full journey from a shared Motel 6 room to the NYSE, and came back to do it again on one of the hardest problems in American healthcare.

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From Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley

Before startups, Tim’s early ambitions were in politics. Growing up in Washington, D.C., he started a peer-to-peer tutoring nonprofit as a teenager, donating the proceeds to purchase school supplies for children in need. By eighteen, he had run for the county’s board of education and won—38,000 votes, a $500M budget, and responsibility for 60,000 employees. He later joined the Obama presidential campaign as a regional field organizer. Politics, for Tim, was never abstract. It was a system for mobilizing people toward a shared goal at scale.

That certainty about mobilizing people never left him—but the arena shifted. As a minority watching the Tea Party Movement reshape American politics, Tim began to question whether elected office was the highest-leverage path available to him. He followed his cohort to Silicon Valley, joining Square through an introduction to Jack Dorsey while still studying full-time at Princeton. What he found there reframed everything. Building a company, he realized, ran on the same fuel as a political campaign: a problem worth solving, a conviction strong enough to sustain you, and the ability to get people to move with you. The feedback loop was just much faster.

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From Basement to NYSE

Tim and his co-founder Jonathan Chen received a small check from Plug & Play to kickstart FiscalNote, a policy and market intelligence SaaS platform, in 2013, registering the company in his parents’ basement and sharing a Motel 6 room to survive. Needing funding with no warm intros, they cold emailed Mark Cuban in the middle of the night. Cuban replied instantly, and what started as an email exchange turned into a six-hour live due diligence session, with the two founders making things up on the spot to keep up with his questions. It worked. Cuban invested. From there, that scrappy, fearless energy never left the company: FiscalNote scaled quickly, growing to a team of more than 200 in under five years and reaching eight figures in revenue.

After its Series D in 2018, FiscalNote was going head-to-head with The Economist Group’s CQ Roll Call. Tim tracked down a college friend with ties to the Rothschild family, a major shareholder of The Economist Group, and secured an introduction to its CEO. The CEO arrived expecting a mentorship chat; Tim arrived with a choice: sell the data division, or face a well-funded, tech-native competitor. The CEO left with a term sheet. The acquisition followed, cementing FiscalNote as the dominant player in its category. In August 2022, the company went public on the NYSE, and today serves over 6,000 organizations globally, including more than half of the Fortune 500 and over 1,000 US federal government agencies.

After FiscalNote’s listing, Tim ran a venture studio across fintech, defense, and climate. He found it stimulating, but something was missing: the grind. Healthcare kept surfacing as the largest unsolved problem in his orbit, and he and Jonathan regrouped to build Nitra. The move made more sense than it looked: Tim’s decade at FiscalNote had given him a transferable playbook for exactly this kind of market: earning trust from institutional buyers who aren’t technology natives, navigating compliance-adjacent workflows, and building software that embeds into daily operations. Government agencies and law firms are not so different from healthcare practices: professional services businesses inside a regulatory maze where billing errors carry both financial and compliance consequences. When Tim and Jonathan sat down to build Nitra, that playbook came with them.

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Why Nitra? Why Now?

Three years since launch, the numbers are compounding. Nitra has onboarded 700+ practices, grown quarterly GTV 9.3x year-over-year, and is seeing a growing share of those practices adopt multiple products across its financial back office, with the card as the entry point, expense management, bill pay, and procurement building on top. 

The forward-looking question is what this platform looks like with AI on top — and Nitra is already answering it. Today, Nitra AI agents already handle tasks across the platform, from issuing virtual cards, placing procurement orders, to surfacing expense anomalies in one conversation, while voice AI for patient scheduling and agentic modules for clinical workflow are on deck for 2026. Underneath all of it, the platform is capturing what no generalist fintech ever could: every dollar moving through a practice, tied to a vendor, a drug, a procedure. The long-term vision is a full CFO and operations layer woven into how a clinic runs. Practices have spent years stitching together tools that were never built for them. When the infrastructure is finally purpose-built, they stop patching, because they no longer need to.

The AI era is also accelerating how quickly underdigitized industries can adopt software — and healthcare is one of the largest of them. Tim has a direct track record of navigating exactly this dynamic: FiscalNote brought data intelligence to government agencies, congressional offices, and law firms. All of them were institutional buyers operating inside regulatory constraints, largely unfamiliar with software, and skeptical of change. He learned how to earn their trust, embed the product into daily operations, and scale from there. That experience maps directly onto what Nitra is building. 

The market is large, the timing is right, and the product is already working. Underlying all of it is our founder bet. Tim and Jonathan chose to return to zero after a public exit, picked one of the most structurally complex markets in the US economy, and are building with the same scrappiness and significantly more accumulated wisdom. The fact that Tim has already taken a company from his parents’ basement to the NYSE, and came back for something harder, tells us more about what Nitra can become than any market sizing exercise. We are proud to support them on this second, more ambitious journey.

我們很高興宣佈 AppWorks 投資了 Sanctum 的原生代幣 $CLOUD。這項投資象徵著我們對 Sanctum 創始團隊的長期信念，以及對於他們多年來建立的強大護城河的認可。

在這篇文章中，我們將分享為什麼我們認為 Sanctum 是 Solana 生態系中最重要的基礎建設之一；它將如何重塑加密貨幣領域中最被誤解的垂直賽道，以及為什麼現在 Sanctum 正處於爆發前夕。

Sanctum：打破常規的 Solana LST

要理解 Sanctum，我們首先需要了解 Solana 流動性質押代幣（LST）的歷史。

很長一段時間以來，大多數人假設 Solana 的流動性質押市場會遵循以太坊的劇本：出現一個主導者（如 Lido），而其他競爭者的市占率將逐漸被該主導者蠶食鯨吞。因此，在 Solana 流動性質押市場的早期，許多協議爭相複製 Lido 模式，試圖在早期達到規模經濟並統治該賽道。

然而，最具洞察力的創辦人往往能看見他人忽視的細節。

Sanctum 的創辦人 FP Lee 作為設計 Solana 質押帳戶合約的核心貢獻者，很早就知道 Solana 的架構設定與以太坊有著根本上的不同。每一個質押帳戶（Stake Account）本質上都是模組化、可轉移且可組合的。這意味著所有 Solana 上的 LST 在核心層面上本質是同質的（Fungible），它們只是同一個底層質押帳戶的不同包裝。

有了這個認知，下一個問題顯而易見：假設一個有著多元 LST 的世界注定將發生，那我們還缺少什麼？

仔細觀察，質押池（Stake Pool）服務於三個不同的目的：

1. 代幣化（Tokenize）： 將原生質押帳戶轉換為生息的 SPL 代幣。
2. 委託（Delegate）： 實現高質押收益並分散網絡去中心化。
3. 流動性（Liquidate）： 為質押的 SOL 提供即時流動性。

對 FP 而言，他的答案是「流動性」。

原因很簡單：以太坊已經進行過這個實驗。Lido 之所以主導以太坊，很大程度上是因為 stETH 整合進了所有主要的 DeFi 協議，並具有極高的可組合性。多年的整合使其成為網路上最具可組合性的資產，其在派發上的優勢逐漸如滾雪球般幫助 Lido 達到了統治地位。

在 Solana 上，同樣的結論更加清晰：質押帳戶是可以互換的；每一顆質押的 SOL 在交易流中都承載著相同的經濟權重。在這個世界裡，「多 LST 並存」的未來是預設狀態，而誰能協調流動性，誰就能贏得這場競爭。

因此，FP 沒有試圖爭奪成為單一最大的質押池，而是看到了更大的機會：成為連結 Solana 上所有 LST 的流動性層。

這就是 Sanctum 的起點。

他們破解這個難題的方式與上述洞察息息相關。首先，他們創建了 「Sanctum Router」，用於在成千上萬種 LST 之間進行交換。這種交換只需簡單地「unwrap」和「re-wrap」底層質押帳戶即可完成。

必要時，這些 Swap 也可以導流到 Infinity Pool，其這可以被視為一籃子由 Sanctum 管理的 LST 組合，且所有這些 LST 都在 Sanctum 的 LST 發行基礎設施下運作。當 Swap 被導流進入 Infinity 時，交易費用將分配給 Infinity Pool 的流動性提供者（即 $INF 持有者）。

這種設計增強了整個 Sanctum LST 生態系統的流動性，同時將 $INF 本身變成了 Solana 上最具吸引力的 LST 之一。

最後，Sanctum 管理著規模可觀的原生 $SOL 儲備，這由所有 Sanctum 品牌的 LST 共享。對於任何項目來說，他們無需自行建立數百萬美元的流動性池，只需透過 Sanctum 發行他們的 LST，而不必擔心流動性的冷啟動問題。

在不到兩年的時間裡，Sanctum 已經和 Bybit、Crypto.com、Backpack、Jupiter 等領域內的主要參與者合作，管理著超過 20 億美元的 $SOL。截至 2025 年底，Sanctum 以創紀錄的指標結束了該年度：總管理資產達 1,436 萬顆 SOL（年增 96%），年營收達到 585 萬美元（年增 226%）。

另一個令人印象深刻的指標是 Sanctum 在 2025 年對 Solana LST 類別的統治力；Sanctum 實現了近 800 萬顆 $SOL 的淨累積流入，而其兩大競爭對手 Jito 和 Marinade 的 LST 產品則以淨流出結束了這一年。這種差距凸顯了 Sanctum 在 LST 市場中流動性護城河的複利競爭優勢。

回過頭看，人們很容易認為這一切都順理成章，彷彿 Sanctum 的崛起是注定的。但事實是，這是Sanctum 團隊於過去五年來堅持不懈、不斷迭代，並在市場寒冬中保持信念才達成的結果。這將我們引向第一個，也是最重要的投資原因：創辦人 FP Lee。

投資論點 #1：我們對創辦人 FP Lee 的核心信念

 

尋找非共識的洞見

我們在 FP 身上看到一種獨特的能力：他能看見別人錯過的東西，並深入鑽研一個概念，直到浮現出反向的洞察。

2023 年，當許多人競相打造「Solana 版的 Lido」時，FP 注意到了上游的一些東西：Solana 的質押帳戶在設計上是模組化且同質的。這單一的觀察顛覆了整個劇本。他沒有去競爭成為最大的質押池，而是將 Sanctum 打造為連結每一個 LST 的流動性層，這徹底改變了遊戲規則。

如今，在 Solana 生態系中建構多年後，他又發現了另一個鮮少人注意到的低效之處：Solana 交易層的不可預測性。簡而言之，我們相信他近期收購 Ironforge 並推出 Gateway 的舉動反映了同樣的模式：鑽得夠深，找到結構性的瓶頸，然後構建出其他人往往視為理所當然的缺失基礎設施。

與社群的深度連結 

我們認為創辦人在 Crypto 世界裡建立社群的能力常常被低估。對我們而言，FP 是少數不只是「管理」社群，而是與社群「共同建設」的創辦人之一。

Sanctum 在代幣生成事件（TGE）前舉辦的 Wonderland 活動，不僅僅是另一個積分農場（Points farm）；Sanctum 將其變成了一個協作的、遊戲化的任務層，用戶質押 LST 以賺取經驗值並共同完成社群挑戰，這使得參與度具有黏性，而非僅是為了逐利。

結果令人驚艷，Sanctum 的 TVL 在 38 天內增長了 171%，社群論壇衍生出了常態性活動（如 Cloudfam Emoji Clan 競賽），讓成員在初次空投後很久仍持續創作與招募，展現了有機的動能而非付費買來的流量。其社群（後來被親切地稱為 CloudFam）成為了 Solana 上最強大的草根運動之一。

大多數人不知道的是，FP 和團隊為了展現這份在乎付出了多少努力。當 $CLOUD 空投的時候，他們不僅僅是跑個程式腳本或在試算表裡算數字。他們手動篩選了成千上萬個 Discord 頻道和 Telegram 聊天記錄，以識別真正的死忠用戶，並給予他們遠比大多數項目更慷慨的獎勵。

代幣終究是創辦人的第二個產品。把「代幣投資人關係（Token IR）」做好不僅僅是管理價格；更是建立信任、透明度和歸屬感。許多創辦人說他們在乎代幣持有者，但很少有人真正言行一致。

FP 是少數言行合一的創辦人之一，從發布月度更新到在 Discord 中持續與用戶互動，他將社群建設視為一門他仍持續優化、且熱愛的事情。隨著時間推移，這種真實性會產生複利效應，將用戶群轉化為更接近「運動」的力量。我們相信這將仍然是 Sanctum 最強大的長期差異化優勢之一。

找到天命

FP 最初並沒打算成為創辦人。在進入加密貨幣領域之前，他只是一個試圖尋找方向的年輕軟體工程師。他是出於好奇和對成長的渴望而跌跌撞撞進入 Solana 的，而他之所以留下來，是因為在旅途中，他找到了天命。

這種天命的發現來自於從事真正熱愛的事情。在加密領域建設多年後，FP 經歷了許多事情：FTX 的崩潰、許多創辦人對用戶撤資跑路、項目魯莽地賭光整個國庫等等。在一個常被短期主義和貪婪籠罩的行業裡，FP 想要證明：在 2026 的今天，你仍然可以打造一個偉大的產品、保持透明，並以正確的方式成功。

雖然聽起來有些虛無飄渺，甚至有些老套，但我們相信這是這個產業中最欠缺，卻也強大的驅動力之一，這也正是我們想要支持的使命。

投資論點 #2：許多對於 Sanctum LST 的利好正在醞釀

 

我們看見 Sanctum LST 的幾個催化劑，並堅信現在萬事俱備，只欠東風。

Solana LST 仍處於早期階段並在成長中

Solana LST 的滲透率在兩年內增長了 4.4 倍，從 3% 增長到 13.3%。這種加速是由像 Sanctum 這樣的生態系基礎建設的出現，以及節點運營者對搶佔 LSTfi 市場份額日益增長的需求所積極推動的。

然而，這 13.3% 的滲透率意味著大多數質押的 $SOL 仍然是非流動的。對比以太坊更成熟的市場（接近 35-40% 的 LST 滲透率），顯然 Solana 的流動性質押層——這個解鎖資本效率和可組合性的關鍵——仍處於早期局勢。

在此背景下，我們相信 Sanctum 正處於那個轉折點。Sanctum 的產品套件（Router、Reserve、Infinity）被明確設計為這種中立的流動性中心。這創造了一個強大的護城河，使 Sanctum 成為這個快速擴張且碎片化市場的預設聚合點。

LST 的網路效應

對於任何發行新 LST 的協議來說，他們不想自行建立數百萬美元的流動性池。相反，最簡單的方法是接入 Sanctum，並只專注於品牌、核心產品和分發；Sanctum 提供流動性層（Router + Reserve + Infinity），使這些 LST 在第一天就能與 Solana 的其餘部分互換。這就是我們所見證的。這個聯盟每天都在變得越來越強大。迄今為止，Sanctum 正在服務所有最大的客戶，如 Jupiter、Bybit、Backpack。

更多整合 → 更多支援的 LST → 更多可互換的路徑 → 跨 DeFi 的更深層效用。 這個飛輪效應是很難被追上的。

機構也正在採用 Solana LST

對 Solana 收益的競爭正迅速演變，超越了 DeFi 原生協議的範疇。新一波規模更大的成熟資本，從傳統金融的資產管理公司、潛在的 SOL 質押 ETF 到上市公司（如 DATs），正進入這個競技場。

對於這些實體而言，基礎質押收益僅僅是起點。為了吸引龐大的資產管理規模（AUM），他們必須提供合規、品牌化且高度差異化的流動性產品。這需要在基礎 LST 之上疊加獨特的驗證者策略、透明的報告和深度的 DeFi 整合。

這正是 Sanctum 成為關鍵賦能基礎設施的地方。作為一個中立、模組化的平台，它提供了全端式的「質押即服務（Staking-as-a-Service）」，讓任何實體都能發行自己的 LST。它允許他們保留對財務策略和品牌的完全控制權，同時將深層的技術複雜性外包給 Sanctum 經過驗證的流動性層和可組合後端。

我們已經看到了強有力的驗證。2025 年 5 月，上市金融公司 DeFi Development Corp (NASDAQ: DFDV) 使用 Sanctum 的基礎設施推出了 dfdvSOL。這標誌著上市公司首次持有並使用定制的 Solana LST。他們的明確目標是將流動性貢獻回 Solana DeFi 生態系統，創造一種也能讓自家公司資產負債表受益的飛輪效應。

我們的核心信念是，隨著更多結構化的 SOL 產品出現以競爭這波新資本，Sanctum 將成為他們的預設發行合作夥伴和流動性骨幹。

我們的論點很明確：在中短期內，Sanctum 是這波機構浪潮中最被低估的基礎設施標的，他們正悄悄成為每個主要生息 Solana 產品所依賴的必要管線。

投資論點 #3：Sanctum App 將成為 Solana 的實質入口

在 2025 年 Solana Breakpoint 大會上，Sanctum 揭曉了其最新力作：Sanctum App。這是一個輕量級的手機端應用程式，旨在幫助用戶在一個有趣、遊戲化的環境中，透過每日獎勵輕鬆增長他們的 $SOL 持有量。

回到我們最初的論點，Sanctum LST 尚未達到市場滲透率峰值的主要原因是當前 DeFi 用戶體驗（UX）固有的摩擦。人們很容易忘記，許多 $SOL 持有者完全存在於「DeFi 泡沫」之外。他們對 Solana 的技術內部結構或 LST 收益背後的複雜數學不感興趣；接觸他們的唯一方法是將這些複雜性抽象化。

繼 Wonderland 的巨大成功之後，我們加倍確信 Sanctum 創始團隊是少數擁有這種「基因」的團隊之一：不僅能建立社群，更重要的是能贏得社群持久的信任。從團隊基因的角度來看，我們有信心他們能再次創造奇蹟。

從產品角度來看，這段旅程已經形成了一個完整的閉環。Sanctum 團隊是將複雜的質押帳戶概念轉化為易於使用的 LST 的先驅。現在，他們正將這一使命擴展到更廣泛的受眾。展望未來，我們預期 Sanctum App 將成為日常用戶的主要介面和入口，而 Sanctum LST 則繼續作為整個 Solana 基礎設施的基石。

總結

當我們看到 Sanctum 時，我們看到的不僅僅是一個協議，而是 Solana 下一個篇章的基礎：其核心是 FP，一位充滿長期思維，以信念以及熱忱建構產品的創辦人，他帶領 Sanctum 從一個簡單的想法發展成為 Solana 的流動性織物，現在更進一步擴展到交易基礎設施。除此之外，我們也預期 LST 業務將透過強大的網路效應、機構採用和跨生態系統的深度整合持續產生複利。

這就是我們投資的原因。FP 和 Sanctum 代表了我們所相信的一切。

About AppWorks

AppWorks 成立於 2010 年，是亞洲領先的創業加速器與創投機構。其生態系匯聚超過 2,000 位創業者，旗下基金管理規模達 3.86 億美元。AppWorks 加速器專注於協助早期新創實現從 0 到 1 的跨越，而 AppWorks 創投基金則支持團隊進行規模化成長。

We are delighted to share that AppWorks has invested in $CLOUD, the native token of Sanctum, as a demonstration of our long-term belief in Sanctum’s founding team and in the strong defensibility and moat they’ve built over the years.

Below, we will share why we think Sanctum is one of the most important companies being built on Solana; how it is reshaping one of the most misunderstood verticals in crypto, and why everything is finally clicking for them.

Sanctum – A Chronicle of Finding the Non Consensus and Right

To understand Sanctum, we need to first understand the history of Solana LST. 

For the longest time, most people assumed Solana’s liquid staking market would follow the Ethereum playbook: one dominant player, i.e. Lido, and everyone else fading into the background. Many protocols rushed to build copycats of the Lido model, believing the game was simply about scale and validator sets.

The most insightful founders see what others miss. FP Lee, Sanctum’s founder, being the core contributor who has designed Solana’s stake account contracts, knew early on that Solana’s setup is fundamentally different from Ethereum’s. Every stake account is modular, transferable, and composable. That means all LSTs on Solana are essentially fungible at their core. They are just wrappers of the same underlying stake accounts.

With that realization, the next question was obvious: in a world of many LSTs, what’s the missing primitive? 

Look closely, stake pools serve three distinct purposes: 

• Tokenize – convert native stake accounts into yield bearing SPL token
• Delegate – achieve high staking yield and decentralize the network 
• Liquidate – Provide instant liquidity for staked SOL

And FP bet on liquidity. 

Why? Because Ethereum already ran the experiment. Lido dominated Ethereum largely because stETH is integrated into all major DeFi protocols and has extremely high composability. Years of integrations made it the most composable asset on the network, and distribution compounded into dominance.

On Solana, the conclusion is even clearer. Stake accounts are interchangeable; every staked SOL carries the same economic weight in the transaction flow. In this world, a multi-LST future is the default, and whoever orchestrates liquidity wins the competition. 

Therefore, instead of fighting to become the single biggest stake pool, FP saw a bigger opportunity in becoming the liquidity layer that unites all LSTs on Solana.

And this was the start of Sanctum. 

The way they cracked this is deeply connected to the insight. First, they created “Sanctum Router” for swaps between thousands of LSTs. A swap takes place with simply unwrapping and re-wrapping the underlying stake account.

When necessary, swaps can also be routed into Infinity Pool, which can be regarded as a basket of LSTs that is managed by Sanctum, and all of these LSTs are under Sanctum’s flagship white labeled LST issuance infrastructure. When a swap is routed into Infinity, the trading fees are distributed to the liquidity providers of Infinity Pool, i.e. $INF holders. 

This design reinforces liquidity for the entire Sanctum LST ecosystem while turning $INF itself into one of the most compelling LSTs on Solana.

Lastly, a sizable native $SOL reserve managed by Sanctum is shared across all Sanctum branded LSTs. For any project, instead of spinning off another multi-million liquidity pool, they can just issue their LSTs with Sanctum without worrying about bootstrapping the liquidity. 

In less than 2 years, Sanctum is now managing over US$ 2B of $SOL with various key players in the space, including Bybit, Crypto.com, Backpack, Jupiter, etc. By the end of 2025, Sanctum closed the quarter with record-high metrics: 14.36M SOL (+96% YoY) under its umbrella and an annual revenue of US$5.85M (+226% YoY).  

Another impressive metric to look at is Sanctum’s dominance of the Solana LST category in 2025; Sanctum achieved a net cumulative inflow of nearly 8M $SOL, while its two largest competitors, Jito and Marinade, saw their LST offerings end the year with net negative inflows. This disparity underscores the compounding competitive advantage of Sanctum’s liquidity moat within the LST market.

Looking back, it is easy to think it was all smooth and inevitable, as if Sanctum’s rise was destined. But the truth is, this was the result of five years of persistence, iteration, and unshakable conviction through market winters. Every piece of today’s success was earned the hard way, block by block, decision by decision. And that leads us to our first and foremost thesis: the founder FP.

Thesis #1: Our core beliefs in FP Lee as a founder

Practiced Contrarianism

We see in FP that he has a unique ability to see what others miss and to dive deep enough into a concept until a contrarian insight emerges.

In 2023, while many were racing to build “the Lido of Solana,” FP noticed something upstream: Solana’s stake accounts were modular and fungible by design. That single observation flipped the playbook. Instead of competing to be the biggest pool, he built Sanctum as the liquidity layer that unites every LST, and that completely changed the game. 

And now, after years of living in Solana’s core, he’s spotted another inefficiency few others even noticed: the unreliable transaction layer. In short, we believe his latest move of acquiring Ironforge and launching Gateway reflects the same pattern: go deep enough, find the structural bottleneck, then build the missing piece of infrastructure that everyone else takes for granted.

Deep attachment to community

We believe founders’ ability to build a community in crypto is underrated. FP is one of the rare founders who doesn’t just “manage” a community but builds alongside them. 

The Wonderland campaign, which Sanctum team held before their TGE, wasn’t just another points farm; Sanctum turned it into a coordinated, gamified quest layer where users stake LSTs to earn EXP and complete community challenges together, which kept participation sticky instead of mercenary. 

The result was amazing, Sanctum’s TVL grew 171% in 38 days, and community forums spun up recurring events (like the Cloudfam Emoji Clan contests) that kept members creating and recruiting long after the initial drop, showing organic momentum rather than paid churn. Its community, later affectionately known as CloudFam, became one of the strongest grassroots movements on Solana.

What most people don’t know is how far FP and the team went to show that care. When it came time for the $CLOUD airdrop, they didn’t just run a script or crunch numbers in a spreadsheet. They manually sifted through thousands of Discord channels, Telegram chats to identify true evangelists and rewarded them far more generously than most projects would.

A token is ultimately a founder’s second product. Doing “token IR” right isn’t just about managing price; it’s about building trust, transparency, and belonging. Many founders say they care about token holders, but few actually walk the talk. 

FP is one of those few that from publishing monthly updates to constantly engaging users in Discord, he treats community building like an ongoing craft. Over time, that level of authenticity compounds, turning a user base into something closer to a movement. We believe this will remain one of Sanctum’s strongest long-term differentiators.

Found his mission along the way

FP didn’t set out to be a founder. Before crypto, he was just a young software engineer trying to find his way. He stumbled into Solana out of curiosity and a desire for growth, and he stayed because, somewhere along the journey, he found meaning.

That meaning came from experience. After years of building in crypto, FP has seen it all — the FTX collapse, teams rugging their users, projects recklessly gambling away entire treasuries. In an industry often clouded by short-termism and greed, FP wants to prove that it is still possible to build a great product, stay transparent, and win the right way.

As intangible, and perhaps as cliché as it sounds, we believe this is one of the strongest forms of drive in the industry — and it is precisely the kind of mission we want to back.

Thesis #2: Major upcoming catalysts for Sanctum LST 

We see several catalysts for Sanctum LSTs, and we hold a strong conviction that everything is clicking for them now. 

Solana LST is still early-stage and growing

Solana’s liquid staking penetration has expanded 4.4x in two years, from 3% to 13.3%. This acceleration was actively driven by ecosystem catalysts like Sanctum and a growing appetite from validators to capture LSTfi market share.

However, this 13.3% penetration implies that most of the staked $SOL remains illiquid. Drawing a parallel with Ethereum’s more mature market (approaching 35-40% LST penetration), it’s clear Solana’s liquid staking layer, the key to unlocking capital efficiency and composability, is still in its early innings.

We believe in this context, Sanctum is positioned right at that inflection point. Sanctum’s product suite (Router, Reserve, Infinity) is explicitly designed to be this non-partisan liquidity backbone. This creates a powerful moat, positioning Sanctum as the default aggregation point for a rapidly expanding and fragmenting market.

Network effects of LSTs

For any protocols that are launching a new LST, they don’t want to spin up multi‑million‑dollar liquidity pools. Instead, the easiest way is to plug into Sanctum, and focus solely on branding, core product, and distribution; Sanctum supplies the liquidity layer (Router + Reserve + Infinity) so these LSTs are interchangeable with the rest of Solana on day one. This is what we have been seeing. The alliance has been getting stronger and stronger every day. To date, Sanctum is serving all the biggest clients like Jupiter, Bybit, Backpack. 

More integrations → more supported LSTs → more interchangeable routes → deeper utility across DeFi. 

That flywheel is hard to catch up to. 

The Institutional Staking Layer

The competition for Solana’s yield is rapidly evolving beyond DeFi-native protocols. A new, larger wave of sophisticated capital, ranging from TradFi asset managers and potential SOL staking ETFs to publicly traded companies (like DATs), is now entering the arena.

For these entities, base staking yield is merely the starting point. To attract serious AUM, they must offer compliant, branded, and highly differentiated liquid products. This requires layering unique validator strategies, transparent reporting, and deep DeFi integrations on top of a base LST.

This is precisely where Sanctum becomes the critical enabling infrastructure. As a neutral, modular platform, it provides the full-stack “Staking-as-a-Service” for any entity to launch its own LST. It allows them to retain full control over their financial strategy and branding while outsourcing the deep technical complexity to Sanctum’s proven liquidity layer and composable backend.

We are already seeing strong validation. In May 2025, DeFi Development Corp (NASDAQ: DFDV), a publicly traded financial firm, launched dfdvSOL using Sanctum’s infrastructure. This marked the first time a listed company held and utilized a bespoke Solana LST. Their explicit goal is to contribute liquidity back to the Solana DeFi ecosystem, creating a flywheel effect that also benefits their own corporate balance sheet.

It is our core belief that as more structured SOL products emerge to compete for this new wave of capital, Sanctum will be their default launch partner and liquidity backbone.

Our thesis is clear. In the short to medium term, Sanctum is the most underrated infrastructure play for this institutional wave, and they are quietly becoming the essential plumbing every major yield-bearing Solana product will depend on.

Thesis #3: Sanctum App will become the de facto entry point for Solana 

At the 2025 Solana Breakpoint, Sanctum unveiled its latest endeavor: the Sanctum App. This is a lightweight, delightful application designed to help users effortlessly grow their $SOL holdings through daily rewards in a fun, gamified environment.

This pivot stems from a first-principles approach. Referring back to our initial thesis, the primary reason Sanctum LSTs haven’t yet reached peak market penetration is the friction inherent in current DeFi UX. It is easy to forget that many $SOL holders exist entirely outside the “DeFi bubble.” They aren’t interested in the technical internals of Solana or the complex math behind LST yields; the only way to reach them is to abstract that complexity away. Following the massive success of Wonderland, we are doubling down on our belief that the Sanctum founding team is one of the few with the “DNA” to not only build a community but—more importantly—earn its lasting trust. From a team-gene perspective, we are confident they can capture lightning in a bottle once again.

From a product standpoint, the journey has come full circle. The Sanctum team were the pioneers who took the complicated concept of stake accounts and made LSTs accessible. Now, they are scaling that mission to a much wider audience. Moving forward, we expect the Sanctum App to serve as the primary interface and entry point for everyday users, while Sanctum LSTs continue to function as the foundational backbone of the entire Solana infrastructure.

Summary

When we look at Sanctum we see more than just a protocol, but the foundation of Solana’s next chapter: at its core is FP, a contrarian founder who builds with conviction and has led Sanctum from a simple idea into the liquidity fabric of Solana, and now it’s expanding even further into the transaction infrastructure. Apart from that, we also see the LST business continues to compound through strong network effects, institutional adoption, and deep integrations across the ecosystem. 

Ultimately, this is why we invested. FP & Sanctum represent everything we believe in. 

About AppWorks

Founded in 2009, AppWorks is a leading accelerator + VC  in Asia and Web3, managing US$ 368M across its funds. At AppWorks, we invest in the founders who are obsessed with true product-market fit and committed to playing the long game. If this resonates with you, let’s chat.