Arnhem
Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...
) is a business man and investor. Among others he was the co-founder, with
Gary Wang
Gary Wang or Wang Wei (; born May 8, 1973) is a Chinese entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Chinese video sharing company Tudou.com and served as its CEO until August 2012. He is currently the founder of Light Chaser Animation Studios, an anim ...
, of the popular Chinese
video sharing
An online video platform (OVP), provided by a video hosting service, enables users to upload, convert, store and play back video content on the Internet, often via a structured, large-scale system that may generate revenue. Users will generally u ...
website
Tudou.com
Tudou, Inc. () is a Chinese video-sharing website headquartered in Shanghai, China, where users can upload, view and share video clips. Tudou went live on April 15, 2005 and by September 2007 served over 55 million videos each day. After moving to Canada in 2013 he became active in
Bitcoin
Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...
and
blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
, among others founding First Block Capital, Hut 8 Mining, and FirstCoin.com.
Career
Raised mostly in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, he lived in many different countries, including Curaçao, Belgium, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, and Canada. From 1991 Van der Chijs studied business economics in
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
, and then took a traineeship at
Daimler-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...
; after working at their headquarters in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
as well as in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, he moved to
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
in 1999 to take up a position as senior controller for Daimler-Benz' China operations. Soon after, he resigned from that position and began working as an independent consultant while also studying
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
on the side.
In 2004, Van der Chijs's wife Grace Wang introduced him to Gary Wang, a former classmate of hers at
Insead
INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...
. The two men established Tudou in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
in 2005; van der Chijs was the one to suggest the name. , van der Chijs has left more of the operation of Tudou to Gary Wang, who has taken up the
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
position. Instead, van der Chijs concentrated on his responsibilities as CEO of Spil Games Asia, a Dutch internet games company.
In 2013 Van der Chijs left China and moved to Vancouver, where he became a managing partner in venture capital fund CrossPacific Capital. His main activities were in FinTech, with a focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. In early 2017 Van der Chijs founded the first registered cryptocurrency investment fund in Canada, First Block Capital, and launched the first licensed Bitcoin fund in the world (FBC Bitcoin Trust). He also founded Initial Coin Offering investment bank First Coin Capital that he sold to Mike Novogratz in January 2018 and the largest Bitcoin miner in North America Hut 8 Mining that he took public in March 2018.
Since July 2013 he is also on the board of Chinese P2P lending company Dianrong.com (Sinolending) and in 2014 Van der Chijs co-founded the P2P insurance company Uvamo.com. Additionally, he is an advisor for Emercoin.