Albert Liang is a crypto entrepreneur and startup ecosystem builder best known for founding and leading Bitcoin Startup Lab, an education and venture support platform focused on teams building in the Bitcoin ecosystem. His work centers on founder enablement, early stage product validation, and community driven programs that connect builders with mentors, capital, and technical resources.
Overview
Liang’s public profile is closely tied to Bitcoin Startup Lab’s accelerator style curriculum and its emphasis on emerging Bitcoin development areas, including Bitcoin DeFi, Ordinals related applications, and broader infrastructure development. Through programs, workshops, and hackathon style competitions, Liang has positioned Bitcoin Startup Lab as a hub for early stage founders looking to translate ideas into deployable products and teams.
History and Background
Before focusing on Bitcoin ecosystem programs, Liang built experience across startup education and early stage venture development. He has been associated with iGenesiis Group, which he describes as operating a pre-accelerator program that originated in Shanghai and expanded across multiple markets. This background reflects a career focus on structured founder training and repeatable methods for moving projects from concept to execution.
Liang’s education has been referenced in connection with international academic institutions, reflecting a cross market perspective that aligns with his work supporting globally distributed teams. In practice, his initiatives often target founders who are new to Bitcoin specific development stacks and need structured guidance on market selection, product design, and go to market execution.
Bitcoin Startup Lab
Bitcoin Startup Lab is presented as an early stage platform designed to help Bitcoin aligned startups form teams, refine products, and connect with an investor and mentor network. The program model combines educational content with founder matching and milestone based support. This structure is intended to reduce common bottlenecks for first time founders, such as unclear product scope, limited access to technical co-founders, and weak distribution channels.
Liang’s role as founder and leader places him at the center of the lab’s curriculum design and community programming. The organization’s positioning emphasizes Bitcoin as an application platform rather than only a store of value, reflecting broader industry efforts to expand use cases through new standards and layers.
Latest Ventures and Initiatives
In 2023, Liang and Bitcoin Startup Lab promoted the “Bitcoin Olympics” hackathon format, framing it as a structured competition for founders building in areas such as Bitcoin DeFi and Ordinals. The format combined registration, educational sessions, mentor access, and a pitch based evaluation process intended to surface projects with near term viability. Bitcoin Startup Lab has also described plans to scale the concept into larger, multi sponsor competitions.
In August 2024, Bitcoin Startup Lab announced a significantly expanded edition of the Bitcoin Olympics, describing it as the largest Bitcoin hackathon in its history. The announcement outlined a multi track competition design and a larger prize pool supported by sponsors and partner organizations, consistent with Liang’s strategy of using competitions as both talent discovery and product incubation mechanisms. Readers can find additional details in CryptoSlate coverage of the initiative, including the related press release: Bitcoin Startup Lab launches largest Bitcoin hackathon in history.
Liang has also been associated with the launch of a BRC-20 community token initiative linked to Bitcoin Startup Lab. In late 2023, the organization introduced the LABB token as a community oriented mechanism intended to support ecosystem participation and incentives for builders. CryptoSlate covered the announcement here: Bitcoin Startup Lab debuts BRC-20 LABB token.
Technology Focus and Market Position
Liang’s work sits at the intersection of Bitcoin native development and startup acceleration. As new standards and layers expand the types of applications that can be built around Bitcoin, founder education and technical onboarding have become more prominent needs. Bitcoin Startup Lab’s programs reflect this shift, aiming to translate fast moving technical trends into practical startup playbooks and investor ready narratives.
Risks and Considerations
Programs that blend education, competitions, and token aligned incentives carry operational and reputational risks. Hackathons can attract speculative behavior, and project quality may vary significantly across participants. Token initiatives in particular may face heightened scrutiny related to distribution design, consumer protection expectations, and jurisdiction specific compliance requirements. More broadly, Bitcoin ecosystem development trends can change quickly, so accelerator style programs must continuously update technical assumptions and market frameworks to remain relevant.
