Michael Terpin
Founder & CEO, Transform Ventures
Michael Terpin is founder and CEO of Transform Capital, his personal family office vehicle for
investments in blockchain and real estate, and its sister companies, Transform Ventures, an
incubator/accelerator for early stage blockchain companies, and Transform Studios, a Bermuda
blockchain incubator. In March 2023, Terpin invested in the parent company of Alpha Sigma
Fund to create Alpha Transform Holdings, which announced two new funds with $100 million
AUM.
Terpin also founded and remains chairman of the largest advisory/marketing firm in the
cryptocurrency sector, Transform Group, representing more than half the market capitalization of
the cryptocurrency sector, excluding bitcoin. He is most known for the high-profile launches of
Augur, Bancor, Ethereum, Gnosis, Mastercoin, Neo, Tether and WAX, as well as marketing of
exchanges including Bittrex, Kraken and OKex. He also started CoinAgenda, the oldest
continually operating conference series in the cryptocurrency sector, in 2014, running high-end
investor conferences in the US, Europe, Caribbean, Dubai and Asia.
Terpin co-founded BitAngels, the world’s first angel network for digital currency startups, in
May, 2013, which has expanded to 25 city chapters. He is also a general partner in Tradery
Capital, an algorithmic trading fund for digital assets; a general partner in Tradecraft, a market
neutral liquid venture fund; an LP and senior advisor to Alphabit Fund, a leading international
digital currency fund; and an LP at OP Crypto, one of the leading Asian cryptocurrency venture
capital funds. He also co-founded and profitably exited the Dapps Fund, one of the first
cryptocurrency venture funds, in March, 2014.
Additionally, Terpin is chairman and co-founder of First Block, a collection of vertical market
newswires, including Blockchain Wire , investor services and NFT properties. Previously, Terpin
founded Marketwire (now Globe Newswire), one of the world’s largest company newswires,
which was acquired in 2006, later sold to NASDAQ for $200 million, and ultimately to Intrado
Digital Media, a division of Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO). He also co-founded
Direct IPO, one of the earliest equity crowdfunding companies, in 1996.
Most recently, Terpin co-founded OpenCarbon, the first enterprise NFT marketplace for carbon
credits, which debuted at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly Climate Week. A pioneer
in new use cases for NFTs, Terpin also created the SIM Dogs with famed pop artist Andre
Miripolsky to create visibility and additional funding for his multi-year legal fight against AT&T
for its negligence in allowing criminal gangs to bribe its store representatives and steal identities,
leading to the loss of $24 million in cryptocurrency.
Terpin previously founded and sold The Terpin Group, which represented many of the early
Internet leaders, including America Online, Earthlink, Match.com and the Motley Fool. The firm
is now part of FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN). Terpin holds an MFA from SUNY at Buffalo and
dual BA in journalism and English from Syracuse University, where he serves on the board of
advisors at the top-ranked Newhouse School of Public Communications. Terpin lives with his
wife, Maxine, and toy poodle in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he received the first Act 22 tax
decree granted to a blockchain industry investor and has widely been credited with being the
father of the Puerto Rico blockchain migration (now more than 700 investors and entrepreneurs
in seven years). He also co-founded the Caribbean Blockchain Association with industry leaders
Gabriel Abed and Roger Ver.
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