Before Injective became a multibillion-dollar blockchain network, it was just an idea held together by grit and hope. No fancy boardrooms. No hype campaigns. Just grit and the stubborn belief that finance shouldn’t be rigged for the rich.

Spending his childhood in China, the U.S., and Hong Kong, Eric Chen noticed a stark contrast in tech adoption across regions. In the US, innovation moved fast. In Asia, he often saw a lag in adoption or even watered-down versions of Western tech. This disparity sparked his fascination with the internet.

When he moved to Northern California during high school, he found himself immersed in a culture of hackathons and an environment that solidified his interest in tech. In college, he became fascinated with real-world applications of cryptography.

Studying both computer science and finance, he watched his classmates branch into hedge funds, big tech, and more typical careers. He, on the other hand, was compelled to build something with relevance and impact, and he found that in crypto.

Crypto exposed real flaws in our financial system, such as front-running and price manipulation, that left regular users behind. Eric was convinced that the system could be rebuilt to serve everyone equally. That belief would later birth Injective—a blockchain designed to serve as a financial infrastructure layer, not just another smart contract chain.

“We Had to Earn Every User”

Injective was envisioned as a decentralized on-chain exchange mechanism meant to solve the limitations of existing DEXs. The project was finally launched in the shadow of the 2018 crypto crash. That was when Bitcoin slipped below $6,000, VCs pulled out, and institutional interest dried up. The team lived in a tiny New York apartment, splitting rent with roommates and eating whatever they could afford. With little funding, every dollar counted.

“We had to earn every single user we gained over time. We had to earn every single dollar that came in. We had to really, really learn how to be extremely efficient and scrappy with the incubation capital that we were given.”

Eric took to Telegram to personally reach out to crypto communities and pitch the idea of Injective. Many were skeptical, and some were bluntly critical. But rather than get discouraged, Eric leaned into the feedback. Eventually, his refusal to ignore even the harshest voice in the room became the foundation of Injective’s culture.

A Different Kind of Blockchain

While others raced to build all-purpose platforms, Injective stayed focused. Instead of trying to support every app under the sun, Injective was purpose-built for traders, builders, and financial engineers. It allows developers to build fully on-chain order books, derivatives platforms, and real-world asset markets, which are typically out of reach for the average person.

In today’s world, Eric says, finance is “a game for the rich,” and he’s determined to change that. He believes that access to opportunity shouldn’t depend on how much money you have. Whether someone holds a few dollars or a few million, they should be able to participate in the same financial markets without barriers.

That’s what Injective is doing. It offers users from anywhere in the world the ability to access tokenized assets, participate in global markets, and build their financial future without middlemen. Today, Injective supports over 1.4 million unique addresses, enabling seamless DeFi access across 100+ markets. From perpetual futures to real-world stocks like Tesla or GameStop, Injective is bridging traditional assets with crypto-native tools on a chain built entirely for finance.

Yet for Eric, the goal was never the numbers, but the impact. The most powerful feeling, he says, wasn’t launching a product or hitting a metric. It was that quiet moment at the beginning when an idea finally felt real—when everything else was uncertain, but the mission was clear.

“If I have a time machine and go back and tell myself at that time, it would be: cherish that moment. Because you're not going to have a lot of those. And it's probably the most powerful feeling in the world.”

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