Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital (VC) firm Seven Seven Six (776) is looking to raise a crypto investment fund worth $177.6 million, while current and former executives from Galaxy Digital and Genesis are raising a $500 million fund of their own.
776’s crypto play
According to an Aug. 29 report from The Information, 776’s fund “Kryptos” will launch in October to capitalize on the current bear market. It emphasized there are currently some bargain bin token discounts on the market that are ripe for the taking.
“This is the best time to buy if you’re really long on the industry. It’s on sale. Everything is on sale,” said Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six.
The firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to become an investment advisor in April, enabling the firm to invest in crypto and manage crypto investment funds.
While 776 has invested in a host of crypto/blockchain projects, it will be the VC firm’s first fund that is solely focused on crypto assets. It will charge investors a relatively hefty management fee of 2.5% and offer a universal profit-sharing plan of 25%.
According to 776’s website, its investment portfolio has exposure to Bored Ape Yacht Club creators Yuga Labs, the Doodles NFT project, Web3 fantasy franchise the Forgotten Runes Wizard’s Cult, and blockchain API and node infrastructure startup, QuickNode to name a few.
Galaxy and Genesis
According to an Aug. 26 Form D filing with the SEC, a $500 million fund headed up by current and former Galaxy and Genesis execs is called the DBA Crypto Fund I, LP.
Details on the fund are sparse at this stage, other than the group indicating that it will be a pooled investment fund and private equity fund.
In terms of securities offered, the only indications so far are “pooled investment fund “interests” and “other.”
Related: Crypto Biz: Crypto VC is back with a vengeance
The group of execs behind the fund consists of Galaxy Digital’s vice-president of investments Michael Jordan, Genesis’s head of derivatives Joshua Lim and former Genesis vice president of trading Roshun Patel. Alongside them, the CEO and founder of trading firm Convex Optimization Group, Shane Barratt rounds off the list of the managing members.
These crypto funds are not the only ones with big names behind them grabbing headlines over the past week, with Cointelegraph reporting on Aug. 25 that Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal had raised $50 million for a new startup fund dedicated to Web3 firms.
A week prior to that, CoinFund also launched a $300 million early stage Web3 venture fund to invest in crypto and other blockchain sub-sectors.
