A crypto hedge fund founded in August 2017, BlockTower Capital, has been hiring new staff since the beginning of the year, including Steve Lee, a former portfolio manager and trader at Goldman, as a director to improve BlockTower’s strategic partnerships and business development in Asia.
BlockTower was founded by Ari Paul, formerly of the trading firm Susquehanna, and Matthew Goetz, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs.
Earlier this year, BlockTower said it hired former Goldman vice president Michael Bucella as head of strategic partnerships and business development.
Joe DiPasquale, the founder of BitBull Capital, a crypto fund of funds invested in seven firms, said there is a unique blend between VC and hedge funds in the crypto space.
DiPasquale said:
“BitBull is seeing a unique blending of equity (venture) and token (hedge fund) investing in crypto markets. Investors in crypto are often excited by the exposure they get to new technologies – the venture-capital like dynamics – while getting extreme liquidity.”
BlockTower is among the best-known crypto hedge funds in a booming space that now includes over 200 firms. The crypto fund is now moving into venture capital investing with a new fund, according to people familiar with the matter. It will assign up to $25 million to the new fund, and will invest in startups in the crypto space.
BlockTower has hired Eric Friedman, formerly of Expa, a California-based investment firm to head up its venture efforts. Friedman joined the firm in April, according to his LinkedIn profile, as a partner.
His profile reads:
“Early stage investing @ BlockTower Focused on working with great founders building incredible companies. Helping people build the machine that builds the business – hiring, scaling, operationalizing and monetizing companies.”
Friedman previously worked at Foursquare as global senior director of sales and revenue operations. He also spent some time at Union Square Ventures.
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