I am super excited to join the CoinFund team as a Managing Partner, with a focus on our liquid investment strategies. Blockchain, digital assets, and the development of decentralization technology have been extracurricular passions of mine since 2012. Now it’s time to go full time!
Jake, Alex, Oleg, Devin, Ryan and Jason have built an amazing reputation in the blockchain space as early thought leaders, researchers, and valuable partners to projects. CoinFund has invested in some of the top emerging growth companies of the past two years. I look forward to helping to broaden the firm’s expertise and product offerings in the liquid crypto and equity markets.
My focus is going to be on merging our team’s deep knowledge of digital asset markets with a core fundamental investing approach, as well as finding opportunities within traditional equities where our understanding of the decentralized world provides an edge. I call the latter opportunity convergence, where crypto and equity markets become more integrated, and I think we will see that expand over time. Risk management will be critical, as it offers a great opportunity to generate outperformance when volatility is high, like in these new markets.
Digital assets are a new asset class that requires a multifaceted approach to helping investments succeed. A foundational example is CoinFund’s network lifecycle investing, our approach to investing in decentralized protocols that the team has refined over several years. While support starts with capital, as a new protocol grows we provide key technical, infrastructure, and governance support. CoinFund brings to the table one of the longest track records- over 30 years of combined blockchain experience- with blockchain technology development, protocol design, digital asset economics, and decentralization roadmaps.
Education is going to be a key focus. Over the next few months you should expect to see a lot more of CoinFund as we roll out new educational resources and products. If you see the CoinFund team at events, please say hi! While the community is still small, there are constantly new faces, and a big part of our excitement for the future comes from the extraordinary talent, both young and older, betting their careers on this space.
I enter this new role with 18 years of fundamental investing experience at what I consider one of the top long-only investment firms on the Street, Jennison Associates. I have been lucky to learn from the best: investors who have been early in finding companies with high quality, durable, and misunderstood growth through all market conditions since 1969. I couldn’t imagine a better training ground for my venture into the blockchain space!
I couldn’t finish this ‘Hello, World!’ without a quick market perspective. I am very bullish on Bitcoin’s price over the next few years. A series of fundamental catalysts are on the horizon in the first part of this year, and 2H19 was characterized by a number of short-term fundamental and technical dynamics that put downward pressure on price. The analogy I like to use is that Bitcoin was like a balloon being pushed under water at the end of last year, and that downward pressure should end by mid-year at the latest, and potentially sooner. As has happened in prior cycles, I think a move higher in Bitcoin is likely to unleash the next wave of innovation and investment into the ecosystem, which further strengthens the foundation. When this occurs, there will once again be lots of companies and assets that go up in valuation quickly, and down even faster, but out of each bubble comes a new wave of talent, infrastructure, and ideas that will lead the space to the next order of magnitude increase in value, both economic and societal.
I can’t wait to see how the next decade unfolds, and I look forward to meeting many of you over the course of this year!
