Markus Jun is a crypto investor focused on emerging AI agents in the crypto and blockchain sector. He is the former head of research at Deblock, a blockchain project accelerator, and the founder of the ICON Hyperconnect Public Representative, a block validator for the ICON Network. ^[1]

Crypto x AI

Jun argued that the convergence of crypto and AI represents an unprecedented force multiplier, enabling digital money to accelerate every layer of the crypto ecosystem. He emphasized that crypto, as pure digital money, facilitates autonomy and freedom, while AI-powered systems leverage these attributes to operate at a scale beyond human capability. By enabling autonomous agents to monitor data, execute transactions, and rewrite their code, AI integrated with crypto can reshape trading, decentralized finance (DeFi), the metaverse, and cultural domains like memetics and art.

Jun highlighted the transformative potential of AI agents, capable of simultaneous, autonomous engagement across multiple sectors, from financial trading to social media interactions. He connected this evolution to broader trends toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and described AGI as the ultimate technological frontier. By integrating decentralized, omnipresent agents with crypto, he argued, the fusion creates unparalleled opportunities for innovation, culture, and entrepreneurship, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of digital technology. ^{[2] [3]}

Jun has also noted that the current market valuation of agentic AI technology is smaller than that of Shiba Inu, despite its significant potential as a precursor to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). He described agentic AI as autonomous systems capable of performing tasks, improving over time through memory and agency, and evolving with the addition of sentience and understanding. While acknowledging the technology's infancy, Jun argued that its transformative potential warrants close attention, predicting substantial growth in the near future. ^[4]

Interviews

South Korea’s Crypto Sector

In an interview with Crowdfund Insider, Jun shared his insights on South Korea’s blockchain and crypto sector, starting with sharing what he thought had changed since joining the crypto space in 2016: ^[5]

“The cryptocurrency market has been heating up. Interest and trading volumes have surpassed previous peaks. We’re seeing Bitcoin and several projects smash their all-time highs on a weekly basis. However, as someone who’s been investing in cryptocurrencies since 2016 and seen multiple cycles, even in the midst of this seemingly excessive elation, I have never been more confident in this industry. Prices may retrace and cool down, but the fundamentals are rock solid and crypto has announced itself as a challenger to traditional finance. In 2017, at the absolute peak of the market, although prices were at their highest ever, I knew that the euphoria was unsustainable. We had too many ICOs with empty promises and baseless token economics launch just for the sake of fundraising and it was a question of when, not if the market would crash.”

“We have advancements such as Uniswap, essentially a decentralized exchange built completely on Ethereum rivaling trading volumes of centralized exchanges, something completely unthinkable in 2017. Such automated market makers have resulted in massive revenue and value for its token holders. We have revenue-generating vaults/smart contracts in which you can stake crypto that operate complex yield earning strategies, which then distribute revenue evenly to token holders via fair launches by projects such as Yearn Finance and Badger DAO.

We have projects such as Synthethix and Mirror Protocol that are bringing financial securities trading to the blockchain. Imagine being able to click “Connect to Wallet” on a website and begin trading the S&P 500, KOSPI, FTSE 100 without a KYC check or registration on a single borderless platform with zero downtime, 24/7. When you understand that financial securities that can be wrapped (tokenized) entail much more than just stocks, you realize how infinitely large the synthetic assets space (a branch of DeFi) can grow.”

He then discussed his main areas of focus in the ICON ecosystem:

“Let’s start with ICON 2.0. In layman’s terms, it’s a complete redesign/upgrade of ICON’s core blockchain engine rewritten in the Go Programming Language. This overhaul of the core software architecture results in a much faster, more secure and efficient ICON network with several additional features including interoperability (between different blockchain networks such as Ethereum), additional decentralization, and friendlier developer environments. In short, it’s a complete upgrade/rehaul of the network that brings radical speed, security, usability, and scalability. Some of ICONLOOP’s enterprise clients such as the Seoul Government are preparing to use it and ICON 2.0 plans to launch in 2021 July. Some of its features such as its consensus algorithm LFT2 has already been audited and hailed as an industry innovation by top research teams in reputable universities such as KAIST university.”

“The Contribution Proposal System (CPS) is another huge development that’s launching in the coming weeks. It is essentially a decentralized super fund of ICON (ICX) worth millions of USD which will continually be refinanced by block rewards, funding the best projects and teams that build on the ICON network. This fund will be used to finance new ICON projects, accelerating growth. The key point regarding the CPS is that it operates on-chain, and is completely decentralized as the top 22 Public Representatives (block validators) control the allocation of funds by voting on projects that may receive funding. Any team in the world with a solid business plan and enough votes will be free to apply and secure funding.”

When asked how blockchain has been used in South Korea, Jun responded:

“One of the ICON ecosystem’s flagship projects is the MyID Alliance, operated by ICON’s main technical partner, ICONLOOP. Decentralized ID as a general technology, has been praised by the Korean Government and a Korean Government Digital Innovation Report in 2019 noted, ‘Decentralized ID (DID) greatly reduces infringement concerns of privacy rights.’ Currently, ICONLOOP’s MyID is the only decentralized identity consortium in Korea to be approved by the Korean Financial Securities Commission (the Korean equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) and in 2021 January, MyID received an approval extension for another 2 years. Since the abolishment of Korea’s Accredited Certification in May of 2020, the media has been touting a blockchain-based decentralized identity solution as a strong contender to replace it.”

“The MyID Alliance is an alliance of partners (companies) that have pledged to utilize ICONLOOP’s decentralized ID tech stack. Members of this alliance include Samsung, Shinhan Bank (Korea’s largest bank), Bithumb, and 80+ several industry leaders across various fields. Shinhan Bank made a big splash in August 2020 when they announced that ICONLOOP’s MyID tech stack would be used in their main Shinhan Bank app, SOL, for logins and OTPs and that all of their subsidiaries including Shinhan Card, Shinhan Insurance, Jeju Bank, etc. would also soon integrate MyID.”

Toward the end of the interview, Jun shared why he thinks it’s important for projects to collaborate with TradFi and government entities:

“The end goal of crypto should be mass adoption and the most frictionless path to mass adoption is collaboration with traditional entities that already have large existing user bases. One of ICON’s greatest strengths has always been its extensive network of enterprise partners and government entities such as the Seoul Government, as ICONLOOP has provided custom private blockchain solutions for several years now…We’ve also had government entities pushing to adopt public blockchain solutions with the Jeju Government making it mandatory for all visitors of Jeju Island to use MyID for contract tracing of COVID-19. ICONLOOP is currently in talks with other local governments regarding deployment.”

“An interesting development that we recently had was that of Danal, the largest mobile payments processor company in Korea with over $5 billion in market share, announcing that they would support Bitcoin payments to their 60,000+ merchants. Interestingly, Danal is an ICON public representative and block producer and has also announced integration of ICON and Ethereum as a payment option in addition to Bitcoin.”

ICON Foundation

In a 2018 interview with Crypto Zombie, Jun discussed his role in supporting the ICON ecosystem through token swaps, partnerships, and public outreach initiatives. He highlighted ICON's position as a leading blockchain project in South Korea, its extensive enterprise network across sectors like healthcare and finance, and its close ties with the government for blockchain initiatives. Deblock, co-founded with the ICON Foundation, operates as a global accelerator, assisting projects with blockchain integration, technical support, and networking. Jun emphasized ICON’s focus on connecting private enterprise networks through its public blockchain, ICX, and described unique staking mechanisms, including virtual steps for fee management. He acknowledged public concerns over communication gaps and regulatory uncertainty in South Korea but noted growing governmental support for blockchain and positive momentum in crypto policy discussions. ^[6]