New Crypto Venture Fund Raising USD 175 Million

Pantera Capital, an investment firm and hedge fund focused exclusively on ventures, tokens, and projects related to blockchain and cryptocurrency, is looking to raise up to USD 175 million for its third venture fund. This is a significant jump from its previous ones, as their second one was USD 25 million, whereas its debut deployed USD 13 million back in 2013.

Firm partner Paul Veradittakit told TechCrunch the target amount is a “function of how fast the space is moving, the talent coming in, the opportunities, and the sizing of rounds.” An the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, meanwhile, shows that they have so far rounded up more than USD 71 million in capital commitments from 90 investors.

The firm does not always come up on top. Founder Dan Morehead previously said that, “As we improve our order execution our slippage and market impact will decrease and so will our time to put new positions on, which should substantially improve performance even further.” However, they never fail to make their presence known, especially in projects that garner a lot of attention.

The current bearish market did not act as a deterrent for other investors either. Through July 31, there were 96 new crypto hedge funds and venture capital funds, an annual pace of 165. This would surpass the record 156 crypto funds launched in 2017. More than half of all crypto funds currently in existence have launched in just the last 18 months, according to Crypto Fund Research, a research company.

However, the research goes on to show that while crypto funds are the fastest growing hedge fund strategy by number, overall assets are still quite meager, compared to traditional funds.

Still, the optimism of these funds may just be the vote of confidence that the market needs at this point.