Bitfinex Onboards Fulgur Alpha, USD 280M Crypto Hedge Fund

In an attempt to increase liquidity for institutional crypto investors, major crypto exchange Bitfinex, a sister company of stablecoin issuer Tether (USDT), has announced that it has onboarded a multi-million-dollar crypto hedge fund called Fulgur Alpha.

The exchange says in the press release that the Bahama-based Fulgur Alpha is a USD 280 million “absolute returns crypto hedge fund,” which means that it’s designed to use different strategies to generate a steady income regardless of what’s happening at the market.

Furthermore, the fund is accessible only to professional investors, says Bitfinex, and its goal for the current year is to increase the size of its assets under management. Fulgur Alpha’s assets are held at Delchain Limited, a licensed provider of custody, banking, capital markets and initial offering advisory solutions for digital assets, while its regulatory aspects are under the supervision of a Bahamas-based fund administrator and division of Deltec International Group, called Deltec Fund Services.

“A key aspect of this listing is that the fund will trade almost solely on Bitfinex,” Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer at Bitfinex, said, claiming that “[Bitfinex] has most liquidity books.”

Meanwhile, per the Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Hedge Fund Index, crypto hedge funds saw -1.31% return in February, compared to +19.38% in January, but also 8.95% return in the last 3 months. Their historical monthly performance table, from 2013 onward, shows that the January increase was the largest since May 2019, while the February drop is the smallest yet recorded by Eurekahedge, a hedge fund database provider.

Speaking of hedge funds, as reported in late February, New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group upped its offer to USD 1,300 per bitcoin as it looks to buy up creditor claims from Mt. Gox, the cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed in 2014, with thousands of BTC-holding customers losing their funds.