Multi-strategy hedge fund operator Balyasny Asset Management is quietly conducting due diligence on portfolio managers who put money into Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies, Crypto Investor has realized.
The transfer to analysis such methods was confirmed by three individuals with information of the matter. A spokesman for Chicago-based Balyasny, which has $10 billion of belongings below administration, declined to remark.
“It’s onerous to see BAM paying consideration as something however bullish for Bitcoin and (Ethereum), not less than within the brief time period,” one of many sources mentioned, referring to Balyasny by the agency’s nickname on Wall Street.
The agency is much from the one Wall Street store exploring crypto funding performs. Rival Millennium Management, as an illustration, has been quietly buying and selling Grayscale’s $GBTC, as Crypto Investor first reported final month.
Balyasny, notably, has evidently but to tug the set off on backing digital-asset performs and has no quick plans to take action by way of its commingled hedge funds, Atlas Global and Atlas Enhanced. The agency additionally shouldn’t be investing instantly in crypto by way of its groups of portfolio managers.
The agency’s portfolio managers run a large combine of other funding methods on behalf of among the world’s largest institutional buyers — together with pension plans and sovereign wealth funds.
Balyasny, nevertheless, has tapped managing director Francis “Frank” Frecentese to conduct due diligence on Bitcoin and different types of cryptocurrency reminiscent of Ethereum, two of the sources mentioned. Sources for this story have been granted anonymity to debate delicate enterprise dealings.
The normal thought: stand up to hurry on how the explosive development of crypto may have an effect on the agency’s myriad extra conventional various investments. Frecentese joined Balyasny final yr from Bessemer Trust, the place he additionally held the title of managing director and targeted on conducting due diligence on hedge fund methods.
Bessemer Trust, based in 1907, is without doubt one of the world’s largest and oldest household workplace funding corporations. New York-based Bessemer now runs greater than $140 billion on behalf of greater than 2,500 household places of work, foundations and endowments.
The incontrovertible fact that Balyasny has tapped Frecentese to commit a part of his time to crypto due diligence is one other bullish indicator for the house, one of many sources mentioned. The supply added that the phrase is founder Dmitry Balyasny has taken a private curiosity in how the rise of crypto may have an effect on his namesake agency’s present investments.
Balyasny — a rival of different multi-strategy hedge fund corporations together with Steve Cohen’s Point 72 Asset Management, Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Millennium — has pulled off a remarkable turnaround since funding losses and redemptions from limited-partners plummeted agency belongings below administration to $6 billion.
The agency is in optimistic efficiency territory on the yr, having gained 2.6% web of limited-partner charges via the top of April.
Frecentese is constant to hunt out crypto hedge fund managers for exploratory conversations along with vetting different varieties of third-party personal investments on Balyasny’s behalf. That would proceed a prolonged due diligence course of that has been within the works since not less than the start of 2021.
Frecentese’s different earlier employers? Citi, Goldman Sachs, Lyxor Asset Management and Morgan Stanley.
Multi-strategy hedge fund operator Balyasny Asset Management is quietly conducting due diligence on portfolio managers who put money into Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies, Crypto Investor has realized.
Subscribe for full article
Get Access to Our Exclusive Content
Already subscribed? Log In
