BlockTower Prepares To Leverage The "Crypto Winter" With a $150 Million Fund

BlockTower Registered Investment Advisor

Being a registered investment advisor (RIA) grants BlockTower additional flexibility, especially regarding liquid and illiquid token investments. This makes it one of numerous significant crypto investment companies. Layer 1 blockchain Aptos and the institutional finance network Maple Finance are recent investments by BlockTower.

BlockTower is trying to invest at speed and check size ($500,000 to $5 million bets, with $20 million put so far) by maintaining its fund at $150 million, which is kept relatively tidy. It will aid it in competing favorably with its more well-known and active mega-fund peers. With a flagship hedge fund, a market-neutral fund, and a loan operation, BlockTower is a cryptocurrency-focused financial institution. Klocanas, 31, has something to offer startups that a large company cannot: actual power users in institutional finance with a concentration on cryptocurrencies which can assist create markets and supply assets for loan firms to start up.

BlockTower Made 10 Investments

The trio initially aimed to raise $100 million, but early this year, they decided to cap their fund at $150 million. Supporters include the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, former Midas List investor Roger Ehrenberg, French investment firm Bpifrance, and MassMutual. According to Klocanas, BlockTower has only made ten investments this year totaling $20 million, while other companies have made hundreds of millions of dollars in as little as six months.

To get equity holdings of up to 10% in a startup or up to 5% in a token protocol, the company seeks to write $500,000 to $5 million checks it can lead or co-lead into businesses and cryptocurrency initiatives in their early stages. BlockTower targets cryptocurrency startups focusing on finance that integrates blockchains, credit, or payments.