Linda Xie takes stock of her decade-long angel investment track record: six of her investments that generated returns exceeding their principal all came from the crypto sector, with the highest book return coming from an AI company.

Scalar Capital co-founder and former Coinbase product lead Linda Xie published a post reviewing her personal angel investments over the past decade. She noted she has invested in 50 companies total: 60% in crypto, 10% in AI, and the remainder across other sectors. So far, 6 of her investments have generated returns exceeding initial outlay, all from crypto: 5 from token allocations, 1 from equity. None of these alone covers the total capital deployed in her portfolio. The highest paper return, far outperforming all other projects, comes from an AI company; if monetized, its returns would theoretically cover the entire portfolio’s investment. Another 12 companies have formally shut down or exited via talent acquisition: 7 of these investments yielded zero returns, 4 recouped 80% to 90% of initial outlay, and 1 remains pending. The above statistics only cover her personal equity investments, excluding her firm’s funds and directly held crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.