Article author: Ada, MetaEra

Peter Drucker said: "The changes of the times are in line with the characteristics of women."

When Drucker's predictions come true, we find that from technology to finance, from art to business, women are increasingly appearing at the forefront of various fields. With their unique perspectives and tenacious perseverance, they are writing their own legendary stories.

The protagonist of today's story is Annabelle, CEO of Altius. Her experience is not only a legend of personal growth, but also a vivid epitome of the rise of female power in the tide of the times.

From Wall Street to Crypto Finance

In 2011, Annabelle entered Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), ranked 20th in the world, to study mathematics and finance.

Annabelle said that she chose science and engineering because of her family's influence. Her father worked in finance, while her mother studied physics and structural engineering and worked in construction engineering. Influenced by her parents, Annabelle developed a strong interest in science and engineering. Annabelle also admitted that it was her experience studying at CMU that paved the way for her several career transitions.

After graduation, Annabelle entered Wall Street with her excellent grades and worked at Deutsche Bank and Nomura Securities.

"My experience on Wall Street quickly expanded my horizons and helped me accumulate industry experience and knowledge. But for me, this is a path that can clearly see the end." As financial regulation becomes increasingly stringent, Annabelle feels that there is not much room for innovation in institutional products in traditional finance. "At that time, I was thinking about whether I could try some new areas," she said.

Perhaps God always favors those who have dreams, and soon, the opportunity comes.

The ICO wave in 2017 brought "crypto-finance" into the vision of more people. At that time, several of Annabelle's college alumni founded the decentralized exchange AirSwap. They popularized the knowledge of blockchain and Ethereum ecology to Annabelle and extended an olive branch to her.

Without much hesitation, Annabelle gladly accepted the invitation.

In 2018, Annabelle officially joined AirSwap as the head of Asia, responsible for the expansion of the Asian market. This transformation marked its official entry into the field of crypto finance.

While working at AirSwap, Annabelle gained a deep understanding of the operating mechanisms and technical challenges of decentralized finance (DeFi), especially the potential and limitations of blockchain technology in terms of transaction efficiency and security. She realized the lag of traditional finance in clearing and trading, and was determined to use blockchain technology to expand the application scenarios of traditional finance. It was this vision that laid the groundwork for her to join Amber Group.

Enjoy from 0 to 1, innovation can bring more passion

As the interview progressed, I increasingly felt that Annabelle was not just working, but was always thinking and creating, and enjoying the process from 0 to 1.

At the end of 2018, the industry was generally facing the dilemma of insufficient on-chain liquidity, and no market maker was willing to invest in on-chain transactions. After evaluation, Annabelle wanted to use her background and experience in investment banking to build a liquidity provider and provide liquidity to decentralized trading platforms, so she sought transformation again.

Fortunately, she came into contact with the Amber Group team while working at AirSwap. During many communications, Annabelle found that Amber Group was consistent with her own philosophy, and the founding team also had a similar background as herself: graduating from prestigious American universities, working in Wall Street investment banks, and later switching to the crypto-finance field. "Most importantly, we have the same vision and development direction for the future, and we are both determined to be a bridge between traditional finance and crypto-finance," said Annabelle, "so we decided to join forces with the founding team of Amber Group to create a world-leading financial service provider in the blockchain industry."

During the six years at Amber Group, Annabelle led the team to complete the research and development of new products from 0 to 1, expand new businesses, and create new brands. In her words, during these six years, "Amber went from being a hedge fund product to liquidity-related secondary market trading products, to primary market investment, and even incubation. I think it has basically tried all the businesses that can be done in this field and has become a mature and stable platform."

At this time, she also began to think about quitting because "personally, I prefer to build from 0 to 1, including trying some new businesses, new products, and new technologies."

As a result, Annabelle gradually withdrew from Amber Group and founded Altius Labs in 2024.

In traditional blockchain systems, the monolithic execution layer architecture and interoperability design have significant limitations, leading to network congestion, high transaction costs, and insufficient scalability. Annabelle founded Altius Labs, hoping to fundamentally solve these problems by developing a modular execution stack that is independent of the virtual machine (VM).

Sustainability is more important

As a female leader who likes to challenge herself, Annabelle admits that while the crypto-finance industry has fulfilled her dreams, it has also placed high demands on her.

When facing huge changes in the industry and market volatility, it is not easy to always remain rational and think and deal with problems calmly. This is a test of her ability to control her emotions.

“In the early days of my business, I felt like I was sprinting every day. I was impatient and always wanted to see results in a short period of time,” Annabelle said. “But after going through several industry cycles, I now consider sustainability more and look for a work and lifestyle that can be effective in the long run.”

Although she still puts work first, she is no longer just concerned with "execution" and "getting results quickly" like in the early days. Instead, she will do more "thinking" and "evaluation".

She not only teaches herself, but also conveys this concept to the team: "When something happens, it is more important to be able to accurately judge the severity and importance of the matter, including the priority, rather than responding and executing it immediately. I think this is actually more important. I would rather spend more time to evaluate."

Although the crypto industry has high requirements for female leaders, Annabelle said that she can still maintain a good attitude when facing challenges and difficulties, which she believes is a valuable quality that allows her to continue to move forward in the difficult entrepreneurial journey. In addition to liking to challenge herself, she is also a person who likes to find and solve problems. "This may be related to my INTJ personality trait," she said with a smile.

The best way to learn: Try it out

Annabelle said that she is very optimistic about the future of the Web3 industry and is willing to work with the team to do more in-depth research and experimentation in this field.

What is gratifying is that she sees more and more young women entering the industry and having the opportunity to become independent female leaders.

“In fact, from my observation, including the female leaders around me and the female employees in my team, they are more adaptable to this volatile market. They will not show particularly excited emotions when the industry is booming, nor will they be lost in the trough of the industry. In comparison, their emotions are relatively stable.” Annabelle said, “I think this is the advantage of women in this industry, and they can also capture the emotional changes of others more keenly and have better empathy.”

Annabelle also encourages more young women to enter this industry. From her own experience, she concluded: "In fact, the best way to learn is to try, whether it is to enter a mature company to accumulate industry experience, or to join an entrepreneurial team to become a trendsetter of the times, or to start your own business, don't miss any opportunity. Whether you succeed or not, it is part of growth."

Of course, in this process, we will inevitably encounter difficulties and challenges, and even failures. At this time, we must "maintain a good attitude, accumulate experience, and continue to prepare for the next battle."

Finally, Annabelle also gave some advice to young women on how to screen companies. She believed that the team quality of early-stage companies should be prioritized. Integrity, honesty and positive motivation are criteria that should never be compromised. These are even more important than the overall business direction.

Annabelle Profile:

Annabelle Huang is the co-founder and CEO of Altius, a blockchain infrastructure company focused on bringing performance improvements to blockchains at the execution layer. Previously, Annabelle led Amber Group, a cryptocurrency liquidity provider with billions of dollars in assets. Prior to joining Amber, Annabelle served as the Head of Asia for AirSwap, one of the earliest decentralized exchanges on Ethereum. Prior to entering the digital asset space, she worked at Deutsche Bank as a FX structured products expert, providing structured solutions and risk management advice to private equity funds, US corporates and hedge funds.