Altana Wealth, the London and Monaco-based asset management firm led by well-known hedge fund manager Lee Robinson, has launched a new Digital Assets Fund that will invest in blockchain technology across a wide spectrum of sectors.
The Altana Digital Assets Fund (ADAF) invests in early-stage blockchain projects that are largely inaccessible through traditional equity investments, with the aim of allowing investors to participate in what the firm describes as “the significant upside potential of an asset class that is poised to explode”.
Altana, a multi-strategy asset management operation which Robinson – a former Tudor portfolio manager and the co-founder of Trafalgar Asset Managers – founded in 2010, is one of the pioneers in crypto investing.
The firm’s Altana Digital Currency Fund (ADCF), the first active cryptocurrency fund in Europe when it started trading back in May 2014, has returned 7,000 per cent net of fees to date – including a return of 1,495 per cent in 2014.
ADCF invests in major cryptocurrencies in proportion to their global market capitalisation and since inception has outperformed the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index by more than 1,000 per cent per cent.
In January 2017 it launched Altana Specialty Finance (ASF), a specialist financing strategy that loans US dollars to crypto traders secured on their underlying crypto assets. The firm says ASF has never had a down month in the more than five years that it has been running – generating gross annualised returns of 19 per cent, with zero impairment on its loans.
The new ADAF fund uses a discretionary portfolio management strategy following a venture capital style rules-based investment process to source, research, and filter the highest-quality digital assets. According to the firm, it follows six main investment themes: layer 1 and 2 blockchain, decentralised finance, Web 3.0, centralised exchange platforms, interoperability, and metaverse/gaming.
Says portfolio manager Samed Bouaynaya: “With the current market sell-off and investor sentiment at extreme fear levels, we believe we have an extraordinary opportunity to launch the fund now and start averaging into our best blue-chip projects.”
He adds: “We have been closely monitoring key players’ liquidity positions following the recent market sell-off and work alongside Altana’s macro portfolio managers to monitor central bank policy actions. We believe both factors will soon signal a sentiment reversal. As we remain firm believers in the long-term disruptive potential of blockchain technology, these are exciting times for us.”
Altana founder Robinson says: “We recognised the opportunities for a new and truly decentralised asset class back in 2014 when bitcoin was trading at USD435. Since then, Altana has been a leader in crypto markets that are constantly changing and innovating.”
“ADAF will give our investors the opportunity to invest alongside us in game-changing blockchain technologies that have the potential to generate asymmetric returns. I am excited to be able to participate in VC-type returns yet have the ability to reallocate in real time.”
Since its establishment in 2010, Altana Wealth has grown to manage more than USD500 million in assets and employs over 30 personnel across its London and Monaco offices. The firm focuses on delivering alpha from niche strategies, with low correlation to other asset classes and broader markets, and where the firm believes it has an information or structural advantage to generate real returns above inflation.
These strategies include funds offering exposure to cryptocurrencies, focused equity, niche fixed income, FX, social impact, and carbon markets. According to the firm, over the past 20 years Robinson has made more than USD1 billion for investors through these strategies.
