This Fund Manager Bets on Crypto as he Sees Trillions in this Space

The crypto market will become “a multi-trillion-dollar asset class”, according to Travis Kling, the founder of a new crypto hedge fund that will launch on October 1, who is bearish in the near term.

“It [crypto] will be part of our everyday lives. It is still very early, but the development and growth of this technology will be exponential,” Kling told Bloomberg in a recent interview.

The total value of cryptocurrencies stands at almost USD 226 billion. There is, in other words, still a lot of room for growth left before Kling’s vision becomes reality. Moreover, he did not specify when it may happen.

Kling, who previously managed an USD 200 million portfolio of commodity stocks for Point72, the US-based hedge fund founded by fellow crypto investor and billionaire Steven Cohen, left his former employer in December last year to set up his own crypto-focused hedge fund dubbed Ikigai. As evident by his comments, Kling remains confident about the space despite the broad sell-off in the crypto market this year.

When Ikigai opens for business next month, it will be with sufficient funding from partners to begin trading, and a team of 13 people mainly based out of Los Angeles. By November 1, Kling expects to add another USD 15 million of capital from investors, while estimating that his fund will have a portfolio of crypto tokens worth approximately USD 100 million by mid-2019.

In addition to the token fund, Kling is also launching a blockchain-focused venture capital fund that he expects will be worth USD 33 million by the same time, according to Bloomberg.

As reported, despite sharply lower crypto prices this year, crypto hedge funds appear to remain optimistic on the space, with existing firms expanding their operations and new ones being opened.

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.

Also, as Cryptonews.com reported in July, Kling’s former employer, the American philanthropist and hedge fund manager Steven Cohen, is also betting on the crypto space through an investment in the blockchain-focused hedge fund Autonomous Partners. According to previous reports, Autonomous Partners is specifically looking to invest in “cryptocurrencies that serve as general purpose money,” as well as companies working with blockchain technology to build “the next generation of financial infrastructure.”