Bitfinex Launches Massive $280m Crypto Hedge Fund for Institutional Investors

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$280 million Bahamas-based absolute returns crypto hedge fund Fulgur Alpha has joined Bitfinex staking a claim as the leading source of liquidity for institutional investors in the crypto space.

“It is really rare that a fund of this size chooses to trade almost exclusively in a single location,” said Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer at Bitfinex. “The onboarding of Fulgur Alpha cements Bitfinex’s position as the go-to venue for major crypto funds, market makers and arbitrageurs.”

“We’re bringing a traditional fund set up to the crypto space, with a diversification of risk, making this a unique proposition that has not been seen before,” said Bruno Macchialli, Executive Head of Operations at Delchain. “This represents a blueprint for institutional investment in crypto, leveraging the required liquidity and custody solutions.”

The launch of Fulgur Alpha on Bitfinex will put the fund among the three biggest on an exchange widely recognised as providing the best liquidity in Bitcoin. Fulgur Alpha, which is accessible only to professional investors, aims to increase the size of its assets under management in 2020.

The onboarding of Fulgur Alpha cements Bitfinex’s place as an exchange offering a robust trading infrastructure that meets the stringent requirements of institutional investors. Trading volumes of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Bitfinex exceeded $2 billion during a torrid 24-hour period which saw the price of bitcoin plunge 50 per cent.

Fulgur Alpha will benefit from a robust trading model that mediates the exchange as the central point of failure, a source of systemic risk in cryptocurrency markets. 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. The regulatory aspects of this project are under the supervision of Deltec Fund Services, a Bahamas-based fund administrator and division of Deltec International Group.

As an exchange offering state-of-the-art co-location services, Bitfinex is a favoured venue among institutional investors. The exchange’s sophisticated Application Program Interface (API) and intuitive, user-friendly User Interface (UI) is also attracting professional investors with increasing levels of sophistication to the platform.

Bitfinex’s scalable, high-performance infrastructure and connectivity supports a variety of strategies, including High-Frequency Trading (HFT). Bitfinex is also leveraging its position as one-stop-shop for crypto trading offering a variety of services, including margin trading with up to 5x leverage. The exchange also offers users access to a perpetual swap contract offering 100x leverage through its affiliate, iFinex Financial Technologies Limited.