Chicago skyline/river Getty Images, Bjarte Rettedal

A new venture fund has sprouted up in Chicago to back innovations in blockchain and digital assets. And its founder believes Chicago is the "crypto capital of the world."

Led by Paul Hsu, Decasonic launched this week with a $20 million debut fund that will invest in blockchain, digital assets, decentralized finance, gaming, NFTs and other areas.

Hsu, an early employee at Zynga, a gaming company that went public in 2011, said in a blog post that he moved his family to Chicago to launch Decasonic, calling the city "the crypto capital of the world." He is leading the fund alongside Allister Lam, a 13-year Google veteran who joined the search giant after it acquired his previous company, DoubleClick.

Decasonic believes that we're in the very early innings of blockchain innovation, Hsu wrote, and we're still in the "infancy of how the founders will build this new world."

"Blockchain today is the Internet in 1998," he said. "We are that early. The trillion dollar winners of tomorrow have yet to be invented. This revolution has just begun."

Decasonic isn't the only fund in town focusing on crypto startups. Jump Capital announced a new $350 million fund last month that it says will double down on investments in cryptocurrency firms. Chicago's DRW also makes investments in blockchain startups, as does CMT Digital.

Some of the city's high-profile crypto startups include CoinFlip, a bitcoin ATM company that did more than $50 million in revenue last year, and Zero Hash, a cryptocurrency trading startup that recently raised $35 million in a round led by billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.