Bitcoin price declines despite firm planning crypto fund launch

Showtime “Billions”

• Reality Shares, the tiny asset manager known for its
  blockchain exchange-traded fund, is preparing to launch a $100
  million cryptocurrency hedge fund.
• It joins a crowded market of
  over 300 such funds.

Even as the market for
digital currencies sheds billion, corners of Wall Street are
still hot on the burgeoning new asset class. 

Reality Shares, the tiny asset manager known for its
blockchain-focused exchange-traded fund, is preparing to launch a
$100 million cryptocurrency hedge fund. 

The California-based firm saw its assets under management
increase by more than $100 million after its
blockchain-ETF started trading earlier this year. Now, the
firm is building out its new hedge fund, a person familiar with
the firm’s plan. 

The fund, which will be capped at $100 million, already has a $25
million committed, according to the person. The multi-strat fund,
which will be a mix of arbitrage, venture, and directional
strategies, would join a crowded market of more than 366 digital
asset-focused funds, according to research by Crypto Fund
Research. 

2018 is on track to be a record year for crypto fund launches,
according to the firm. Still, most are quite small. Only 28
manage more than $100 million. 

As for Reality Shares, the launch of a fund is part of a broader
push into crypto, according to the person familiar with the
firm’s operations. 

At the same time, other traditional firms are getting more
serious about the market for digital assets. Intercontinental
Exchange announced the launch of its own crypto trading platform
Bakkt, which the exchange-operators thinks will push digital
assets into the mainstream. And Coinbase has lured a $20 billion
hedge fund to its trading platform, as Business Insider
previously reported. 

This is all despite a bear market, which has gripped the crypto
market for much of 2018. At last check bitcoin, the largest
digital currency, was trading close to a year-low of $6,000 a
coin. In total, the market for digital currencies has shed more
than $500 billion year-to-date.

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