Steve Cohen, the founder of the hedge fund Point72 Asset Management, would have exited his investment in the cryptocurrency buying and selling company; Radkl.
According to a Tuesday note from Bloomberg quoting a Radkl spokesperson, Cohen has reduced his exposure to cryptocurrency investments following his departure from Radkl. However, the spokesman said Radkl was still “extremely well capitalized with its current investors” and growing.
Cohen, whose net worth was estimated at more than $17 billion, has backed crypto and blockchain projects both with his personal wallet and through Point72. Cointelegraph reported in September 2021 that the hedge fund manager was part of a round of $50 million funding for non-fungible token company Recur, and participated in a $21 million round for the cryptanalysis company, Messari, through Point72.
While four CEOs are reported to be leaving Radkl by 2022, the company only had one job posting on its website at press time, for a New York-based Linux engineer. By contrast, Point72 reportedly hired Elie Galam in June to lead the hedge fund’s crypto arm in an effort to increase digital asset trading.
The reported investment came amid extreme price volatility for many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), in what many have called a bear market or the coming crypto winter. However, a June report from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested that despite bearish trends, roughly 66% of 89 hedge funds surveyed planned to increase their crypto exposure by the end of 2022.
“We are interested in investment opportunities in the new set of infrastructure companies that are bridging the crypto and non-crypto worlds for financial services, businesses and consumers,” Point72 said in an April blog post. “Ultimately helping to bring crypto to millions of businesses and billions of people around the world.”
Web3, powered by blockchain and crypto, is poised to disrupt the consumer experience and change how financial institutions and businesses operate. Read more about how we think a new generation of start-ups will help bridge the crypto and non-crypto worlds. https://t.co/0RJLNnyZkx
— Point72 Ventures (@p72vc) April 13, 2022
Point72 reported on April 1 that it had more than $24 billion in assets under management. The firm is also reported to have sub-leased part of its New York City office space to Coinbase in June 2021.
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