Multi-Billion Dollar Hedge Funds are Discovering Bitcoin and are Very Optimistic

Multi-Billion Dollar Hedge Funds are Discovering Bitcoin and are Very Optimistic

A rapidly growing number of multi-billion dollar hedge funds are beginning to discover bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market.

Earlier this week, Patrick O'Shaughnessy, the manager of $6 billion quant asset management firm O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, revealed in an interview with Business Insider that he was recently introduced to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies by Matthew Goetz, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs.

Goetz shared his plans to operate BlockTower Capital, a hedge fund focused on the cryptocurrency market, with Ari Paul, the former portfolio manager for the University of Chicago endowment, and attempted to explain the advantages of bitcoin as a decentralized and peer-to-peer financial network.

Upon first encountering bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, O’Shaughnessy admitted he had no fundamental understanding of the structure of cryptocurrencies and their technical intricacies. He said in an interview:

"He told me he bought a bunch of cryptocurrencies: ether, bitcoin, and litecoin. And I was like, 'What the hell is a cryptocurrency?'"

Since then, O’Shaughnessy has studied bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market. In a meeting, Paul shared his experience in the cryptocurrency market as a trader and an investor. As the conversation went by, O’Shaughnessy continued to become astounded by cryptocurrencies and decentralized financial platforms they offer as an alternative to the global banking system.

To assist newcomers in the cryptocurrency sector including O’Shaughnessy, Paul, Goetz, and the rest of BlockTower Capital team alongside Naval Ravikant, the CEO of AngelList, Peter Jubber of Fidelity, and Olaf Carlson-Wee, the first employee of Coinbase, produced an audio documentary on the rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology entitled “Hash Power.”

According to a new study conducted by LendEDU, the majority of people in regions like the US that have well-established cryptocurrency exchange markets and industries have heard of bitcoin. The LendEDU research revealed that 78.6 percent of Americans have already heard of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

The mainstream adoption of bitcoin is growing at a steady rate. Although its market cap is still at $68 billion, it is attracting the interests of large-scale investors, traders, and most importantly, institutional investors such as multi-billion dollar hedge funds. Regulated exchanges in matured markets such as the US, Japan, and South Korea are increasingly focused on providing trading platforms that can address the liquidity issue and demand from institutional investors. Gemini, a US exchange, already partnered with Chicago Board Options Exchange, the largest options exchange in the US, to serve institutional and retail traders.

Tyler Winklevoss, the Chief Executive Officer of Gemini, explained:

"Gemini's key concerns in the cryptocurrency ecosystem have always been security, compliance, and regulatory oversight. By working with the team at CBOE, we are helping to make bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies increasingly accessible to both retail and institutional investors."

Author : Joseph Young

Joseph Young is a finance and tech journalist based in Hong Kong. He has worked with leading media and news agencies in the technology and finance industries, offering exclusive content, interviews, insights and analysis of cryptocurrencies, innovative and futuristic technologies.