Hedge Fund King and Major Players Get into Crytpo: A Turning Point For Its Reputation?
Giuseppe Solinas | Aug 03, 2018 16:27
According to reports from Bloomberg, billionaire Steven Cohen has invested in Autonomous Partners, a hedge fund founded by Arianna Simpson that is focusing on cryptocurrencies and blockchain related projects.
Mr. Cohen is currently the CEO and President of Point72 Asset Management, a firm with $12.4 billion of AUM in 2018 and has an estimated net worth of $14 billion. He is considered one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the world.
Autonomous Partners is already investing in companies that are operating in the development of cryptocurrencies’ infrastructures, or addressing the issues of blockchain scalability and speeding up crypto financial transactions.
Cohen’s investment represents an endorsement of Autonomous Partners’ strategies, focusing on the long-term areas of development in the nascent crypto sector. And acknowledges the potential still to be unleashed in cryptocurrencies and the crypto assets industry.
This indicates a trend in positivity around an emerging breed of hedge funds, such as Cryptor Trust or Taas, concentrating respectively on crypto and blockchain assets, or newcomer Elpis Investments, a hybrid fund which is willing to invest in both traditional markets and cryptocurrencies.
Other major league financial players recently made moves that have reinstated confidence in a field shaken by the regulatory uncertainty that has dominated the last few months.
Last month, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) officially announced the appointment of David M. Solomon as its new CEO, taking over from Lloyd C. Blankfein.
Solomon is considered more “keen on bitcoin and crypto” than his predecessor. While talking to Bloomberg TV in China in June, Mr. Solomon opened up to a deeper engagement of Goldman Sachs into crypto trading.
As he pointed out during the interview: “We are clearing some futures around Bitcoin, talking about doing some other activities there, but it’s going very cautiously.” Adding that: “We’re listening to our clients and trying to help our clients as they’re exploring those things too.”
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Goldman Sachs announcement came a couple of days after the unlikely news of the other financial giant, BlackRock’s, involvement in crypto activities. The $6 trillion plus investment firm revealed that it has set up a working group to look into bitcoin, crypto and blockchain related matters.
The news immediately boosted the cryptocurrencies market and came as a shock when you consider that as recently as January, CEO Larry Fink said they represent “more an index of money laundering than anything else.”
Now Mr. Fink has confirmed that BlackRock “has been looking at blockchain technology for several years,” focusing on cryptos and blockchain developments since 2015, as the firm “is recognising potential for shared processes and data across market participants, clearing, settlement and reconciliation and simplified securities issuance.”
Chris Yoo, a portfolio manager at cryptocurrency hedge fund Black Square NYSE:SQ) Capital Management, best summarised the scope of BlackRock move: “As the largest asset manager in the world, its interest in crypto assets could be a catalyst for upward price movement and encourage other asset managers, even with more conservative strategies, to seriously explore investing in the crypto space.”
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