Alexandre Philippine

Alexandre Philippine is a Seoul-based crypto market strategist, investor, and advisor best known as the founder and principal of Kelpie Capital, a firm focused on helping blockchain protocols enter South Korea and Japan. His work sits at the intersection of exchange strategy, corporate partnerships, protocol positioning, and regional market access. Within the crypto industry, he is associated with Northeast Asia, where exchange structure, institutional relationships, and local business norms can play an outsized role in determining whether a project gains traction.

Overview

Philippine’s profile combines advisory work, investment activity, and corporate business development. Since 2018, he has worked across several parts of the crypto ecosystem, including conferences, media, public policy, consumer electronics, and protocol advisory. That range is notable because market entry in Korea and Japan often depends on more than simple localization. It usually requires direct knowledge of exchange expectations, partnership processes, and how local institutions evaluate blockchain products.

At Kelpie Capital, he advises protocols on exchange listing strategy related to venues such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and GOPAX, while also helping structure partnerships with major Korean and Japanese companies. The firm also takes selective co-investment positions in projects where the Northeast Asian opportunity appears mispriced relative to the protocol’s global potential.

Career and Background

Before founding Kelpie Capital, Philippine held a series of roles tied to the growth of the Korean crypto market. From 2018 to 2019, he served as Head of Sponsorships and Partnerships at FactBlock and Korea Blockchain Week, a period when the event business played an important role in connecting global protocols with local investors, builders, and institutions. From 2019 to 2021, he was Director of Consulting Services at CoinTelegraph Korea, where his work expanded into commercial advisory and strategic support for blockchain projects seeking regional traction.

From 2020 to 2024, he worked with Samsung Electronics as a DApp business due diligence partner focused on Galaxy Web3 integration. In that role, he evaluated blockchain partnerships and helped advance protocol integrations tied to Samsung’s wireless business. The experience placed him close to the practical question of how consumer technology companies assess blockchain applications, particularly when deciding whether protocols are suitable for distribution within mainstream device ecosystems.

His biography also notes involvement in the integration that brought Elrond, now known as MultiversX, into Samsung Blockchain Wallet and the Galaxy Store. It further credits him with facilitating a strategic partnership between Hdac Technology and CasperLabs. These projects illustrate the type of work that sits between protocol development and commercial deployment, where technical credibility has to be matched with product fit and institutional readiness.

Policy, Finance, and Cross-Border Perspective

From 2020 to 2021, Philippine served as an external advisor to the OECD on Bitcoin and digital asset policy. That role adds a policy dimension to a career otherwise centered on market execution. It suggests familiarity not only with protocol growth and exchange relationships, but also with how public institutions have approached virtual asset regulation during a formative stage in global crypto oversight.

Before entering the digital asset sector, he worked at Morgan Stanley as an M&A consultant on a $3.2 billion healthcare acquisition. That background helps explain the financial and transactional framing that appears across his later crypto roles, particularly in areas such as strategic partnerships, listings, and investment selection.

Kelpie Capital and Advisory Scope

Kelpie Capital reflects Philippine’s specialization in Korea and Japan as strategic crypto markets. Rather than operating as a broad venture platform, the firm is positioned as a targeted advisory and investment business for protocols that need access to local exchanges, local corporates, and regional strategic context. According to the supplied biography, the broader track record associated with his work includes more than $260 million raised across 33 projects, advisory work for over 50 protocols, and 33 tier-1 exchange listings facilitated.

Academic Profile and Market Relevance

Philippine holds a PhD in Economics from Seoul National University, with a focus on innovation and technology, and was a Visiting Research Fellow at Università Bocconi. That academic background adds another layer to a profile otherwise shaped by commercial execution. It suggests an approach informed not only by deal flow and business development, but also by a broader interest in how technology adoption, institutions, and regulation interact.

In 2025, he was recognized by Forbes Latin America as one of its 40 Under 40 leaders of the digital revolution. Overall, Alexandre Philippine is best understood as a cross-border crypto operator whose relevance comes from helping blockchain protocols navigate the commercial realities of Korea and Japan, two markets where local access, institutional context, and exchange relationships remain highly consequential.

• Kelpie Capital Principal
• Skry Labs Founding Partner