General Crypto is a hedge fund that provides high net worth investors with liquid exposure to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. <\/p>\n
PALM HARBOR, FL, UNITED STATES, July 26, 2017 General Crypto, a $25 million cryptocurrency hedge fund, has launched to provide high net worth investors with liquid exposure to the cryptocurrency market and digital assets that they believe could run the technological infrastructure of the future. <\/p>\n
Since the start of 2017, the total market cap of cryptocurrency has grown by more than sevenfold to over $100 billion USD, with coins like Ethereum rising in price more than 5,100 percent. <\/p>\n
General Crypto was founded because we believe that cryptocurrencies are one of the most powerful forces in technology since the proliferation of the internet, says co-founder Zach Hamilton. \"Our Fund offers professionally curated exposure to this entirely new asset class, handling everything from compliance and reporting to security and custodian. <\/p>\n
Hamilton is a venture capitalist at Venture51, an early-stage VC firm based in Southern California, and has been an active cryptocurrency trader since 2014. Hamilton has overseen limited partner relations, portfolio management, due diligence, and fund sourcing for several early-stage technology funds. <\/p>\n
We believe theres no better asset class in the world today, says Hamiltons partner and co-founder Logan Kugler. The growth potential of cryptocurrencies is enormous and investors are fully liquid at all times. <\/p>\n
Kugler is a serial entrepreneur who has written about advances in technology, including cryptocurrency, for Popular Science and Association of Computing Machinery, the worlds largest professional society of computer scientists. Kuglers been following cryptocurrency for the last half decade. <\/p>\n
The Funds advisors include Bill Shihara, co-founder and CEO of Bittrex, one of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and Venture51 managing partners Ryan Swagar and Brandon Zeuner. <\/p>\n
We invest with a process very similar to that of a venture capital firm, with qualitative analysis being weighed much more than quantitative, says Hamilton. <\/p>\n
General Cryptos investing strategy is tied to an exhaustive assessment of cryptocurrency tokens with underlying technology that stands to revolutionize an existing system and solve a large, current, and real-world problem. <\/p>\n
We hold 10 to 15 positions in coins we believe could run the technological infrastructure of the future, says Kugler. We see a lot of parallels to the internet circa 1993, and were specifically investing in coins with durable use cases. <\/p>\n
General Crypto has invested in Ripple (XRP), a cryptocurrency backed by Google, that facilitates the near instant transfer of money globally. It takes days to send an international wire transfer, but XRP takes four seconds. <\/p>\n
Weve been holders of Ripple and XRP for a very long time, both personally and through the Fund, says Hamilton. We think that cross-border payments is the perfect first real-world enterprise use case that the cryptocurrency world has produced. Ripple is already creating value for banks in reducing payment friction, thus saving the average consumer money. <\/p>\n
The Fund also has positions in Golem (GNT), a crypto asset that promises to turn the worlds idle computing power into a connected supercomputer, and Factom (FCT), a crypto asset that provides immutable records which could revolutionize massive databases from real estate titles to bank audit records. <\/p>\n
General Cryptos limited partners include high net worth individuals and family offices in search of exposure to the cryptocurrency market without a long lockup period or an investing thesis that lies on shaky regulatory ground. The Fund is also being approached by traditional financiers who are interested in adding cryptocurrencies to their portfolio. Currently, all LPs are U.S.-based, but General Crypto has been receiving interest from China, India, Japan and Australia. <\/p>\n
General Crypto has no management fee and only a 30-day lock-up. <\/p>\n
The cryptocurrency market is known for its volatility and speculation, which General Crypto expects as part of its investment thesis. <\/p>\n
Growing pains are not a negative thing when you are getting taller, says Hamilton. The current speculation is only dangerous to those that are expecting to get rich quickly, or to those who are investing in something they don't understand. <\/p>\n