Other industry highlights:

• “Top 5% Crypto Fund” Targets $20M for Special Situations Fund II

• VC Fund Launches Quant Trading Arm Following Rebrand to Multi-Strat

• Ripple Chairman Anchors Web3 VC Fund with Charitable Commitment

…but first, let’s raise a glass to Crypto Funds Watch’s official sponsor for 2025 🥂

ML Tech, a non-custodial digital asset investment platform designed for sophisticated institutional investors with diverse investment objectives and risk profiles, surpassed a significant milestone of $100M AUM in 2024. The firm is seeking to triple its AUM in 2025.

These were the firm's top-performing strategies that significantly contributed to ML Tech's AUM growth in 2024:

• TS4 - Funding Rate Arbitrage: One of ML Tech’s longest-running strategies, live since 2022, with a Sharpe Ratio of 5.38. TS4 is a delta neutral strategy that captures the basis/funding rate dislocations between spot crypto markets versus perpetual and dated futures.

• TS13 - Directional Quant Strategy: Live since 2023, TS13 is a fully systematic quantitative directional strategy.

• TS22 - Quant Breakout: This high-performance strategy utilizes mean-reverting and momentum approaches, it enters only at optimal points, capitalizing on short-term opportunities with limited intraday exposure.

Eager to see a detailed breakdown of these strategies or discover other top-performing strategies? Click the button below to view ML Tech’s suite of strategies.

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^{🗞 Allocator Developments 🗞}

Former General Manager of Binance Announces $1B VC FoFs Launch — Zhaslan Madiyev, Minister of Kazakhstan’s Digital, Innovations and Aerospace, announced on Linkedin, the country is launching a $1B FoFs with the goal of attracting startups in fintech, medtech and AI to come to Kazakhstan. The Qazaqstan Venture Group will launch with an initial launch capital of $130M.

$143B AUM Stablecoin Issuer Makes First VC Investment — Tether, crypto’s largest stablecoin issuer, invests $2M in Arcanum Capital's Web3-focused Arcanum Emerging Technologies Fund II. Fund II will make pre-seed and seed investments in blockchain technologies that enhance remittances, cross-border payments, privacy and banking services to the unbanked. Tether’s investment in the venture capital fund is the latest in a string of diversification moves from the stablecoin issuer.

Mutli-Strat Fund Backs Emerging DeFi Fund & Wins Fund of the Year — FDI Insider acknowledges Samara Alpha Management as Digital Asset Investment Firm of the Year. According to Wilfred Daye, CEO of Samara, the firm has analyzed over 220 crypto fund strategies since its launch in 2023. Recently, the Multi-Strat fund has just allocated $1M to Boreal, a market neutral DeFi fund which utilizes various DeFi protocols to generate yield on top of US dollars, bitcoin and ether.

Crypto VC Secures GP Investment from $235B Asset Manager — Blue Owl’s GP Strategic Capital platform makes passive minority investment in BITKRAFT Ventures. BITKRAFT manages +$1B in AUM with six funds covering Early-Stage Venture, Growth-Stage Venture, and Web3/Crypto. Blue Owl manages +$235B in AUM investing across three multi-strategy platforms: Credit, GP Strategic Capital, and Real Estate.

+$1B Investment & Advisory Firm Seeks AI Agent Fund Exposure —Maja Vujinovic, Managing Director of OGroupLLC, announced in a Traders Guild community post, that those running a “memecoin fund or a normal fund focused on AI agent economy” should reach out as they are heavily invested in Ai16z, a decentralized VC fund powered by AI agents.

$14B Crypto Quant Allocator Opens New Office — Qube Research & Technologies, a global investment manager, opens new office in Sydney. Qube is rumored to cut some of the largest checks in the crypto quant space.

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🔥 What’s Hot in Crypto 🔥

“Top 5% Crypto Fund” Targets $20M for Special Situations Fund II

reDeFi, a multi-strategy hedge fund focused on the digital asset sector, has received significant interest toward its $20M target for its Special Situations Fund II, set to close when the $20M target is hit or in the Spring of 2025.

The fund focuses on opportunities in areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi), DAO takeovers, funding rate arbitrage, and distressed assets. Its strategy is designed to remain more beta-neutral, aiming to minimize exposure to broader market volatility. The fund’s goal is to maintain minimal correlation with Bitcoin or broader crypto markets by pursuing highly specialized investment opportunities.

reDeFi leverages its deep expertise, innovative deal flow, robust risk management practices, and understanding of crypto market cycles. The firm has demonstrated an ability to anticipate major market events, including the Celsius and Terra LUNA/UST collapses in 2022. Its niche strategy, which requires deep expertise, is not easily replicated.

Between January 2022 to November 2024, reDeFi Capital Fund was ranked in the top 5% of crypto hedge funds based on its three-year annualized rate of return, as reported by Hedge Fund Research.

The fund is led by Wilson Veech, who has over eight years of experience investing in the digital asset markets. reDeFi is supported by a team of four.

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VC Fund Launches Quant Trading Arm Following Rebrand to Multi-Strat

Aves Lair has rebranded as Syntax Capital, reflecting its evolution into a multi-strategy investment firm. The firm has raised $5M toward its $20M target. Founded in 2018 as a technology hub and co-working space, the firm transitioned to venture capital in 2020. It has deployed over $10M through its vintage fund, achieving a 7x multiple on capital invested (MOIC). Notable investments include: Immutable (Layer 2 Scaling Solution), Movement Labs (Modular Move-based Blockchain), and Digital Prime Technologies (Institutional Digital Asset Lending).

The firm recently launched a systematic trading strategy focused on medium-frequency, active trading of major cryptocurrencies. The quantitative strategy analyzes derivative markets for opportunities to execute market-neutral combinations using multi-leg structures of options, futures, and spot trades while incorporating funding rate harvesting. Mark Treinkman, Head of Research, brings 20 years of experience in quantitative trading across crypto derivatives and equities, focusing on strategy development for the trading arm.

With this addition, Syntax Capital now offers a multi-strategy approach through three vehicles: venture investments, decentralized finance (DeFi), and quantitative trading. The firm is led by Marian Tong, an expert in financial advisory with extensive experience in IPOs, M&A, private equity, and portfolio management for family offices and high-net-worth individuals, alongside Kevin Valentine, a seasoned professional with two decades of expertise in capital markets, private equity, and venture capital.

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Ripple Chairman Anchors Web3 VC Fund with Charitable Commitment

Mindfulness Capital, a multi-strategy Web3 VC firm, has announced the launch of a new $50M fund. The fund will commit 50% of the general partners’ profits to charitable initiatives. Chris Larsen, Chairman of Ripple, serves as a prominent anchor limited partner (LP) in the fund.

The fund will focus on pre-seed, seed, and Series A investments in Web3 projects, providing both token and equity funding. Similar to the firm’s first fund, the new fund will remain sector-agnostic, with the sole purpose of identifying and supporting high-potential projects.

The firm's first fund delivered a 10X return to its investors, featuring notable investments such as The Sandbox, Cartesi, Swarm, EnjinStarter, and Bitdeer. Building on this success, Mindfulness Capital has already raised $10M from family offices and private investors toward its $50M target.

Notable members of the leadership team include: Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox, and Kenneth Ng, co-founder of Uniswap, who offers advisory guidance. Over the past eight years, the team has built, invested in, and advised numerous tech and blockchain companies, leveraging their technical knowledge and insights to unlock new investment opportunities.

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🍿 Blockchain Bytes 🍿

• Of 50+ liquid fundamental hedge funds with nearly $4B AUM, the fundraising environment is more favorable now than at any point in the last year. 65% of managers reported inflows for the month — Powered by Crypto Insights Group (CIG)

• Crypto investor, Will Harbone, launches LongGame, a $40M venture capital fund to bridge biotechnology and decentralized science (CryptoSlate)

• DWF Labs launches $20 million AI agent fund to back Web3 projects creating transformative AI agents (CryptoBriefing)

• Seven Seas, a premier quantitative DeFi investment strategist managing $2.8B in non-custodial investment vehicles, launches ETH DeFi Yield fund aiming to to generate 10% returns relative on ETH in DeFi via market making on decentralized exchanges and leveraged positions (Hackernoon)

• Casey Caruso, Google-engineer-turned-investor, has raised $75M for Topology Ventures — Topology will invest in AI, blockchain, quantum computing, and other disruptive fields (Cryptonews)

• FTX-linked fund MNNC Group raises +$100M after LedgerPrime name change — At its height, LedgerPrime managed $400M, and, in 2021, FTX acquired Ledger Holdings, parent of the hedge fund. (DLNews)

• Edge Capital, a DeFi focused quant fund, more than triples its AUM to end 2024, now managing +$240M (Vadim Khramov)

• The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the UAE’s highly recognized financial centre, ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Markets), grants Triton Liquid Fund a Financial Services Permission (FSP) — Triton Liquid is now one of the first liquid crypto funds licensed in ADGM (Triton Fund)

• 🔥 🔥 🔥 Dan Eskow, a seasoned crypto headhunter, launches Up Top Capital, raising $2M toward a $5M goal — Dan will leverage his recruitment expertise to support portfolio companies in hiring (Pitchbook)

• FinYX, +$90M Cayman-regulated MFT quant fund, is awarded Best New Fund Management Company in Cyprus for 2024 (FinYX)

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