Pantera Seeks $600M for New Blockchain Fund

Pantera Capital is looking to raise $600 million for a new fund to invest in early stage tokens, venture equity and liquid tokens. The Pantera Blockchain Fund will have a minimum investment of $1 million. 

“Many investors view blockchain as an asset class and would prefer to have a manager allocate amongst the various assets,” Dan Morehead, Pantera CEO and co-chief investment officer, said in a recent note to investors. “This compelled us to create Pantera Blockchain Fund, a new wrapper for the entire spectrum of blockchain assets.”

The San Francisco-based firm, founded in 2013, was one of the earliest in the cryptocurrency investment space. 

Pantera currently offers a range of investment funds focused on cryptocurrencies and tokens. The Early Stage Token Fund, launched in 2017, is up more than 2,700% from the start of 2020. Pantera’s latest venture fund, Fund III, raised $175 million in 2018 for “companies enabling the institutionalization of digital assets as an asset class.” As of January, the fund is worth 3.8 times that, according to Pantera. 

“Our focus continues to be finding and growing the most promising ideas in the blockchain space, and continuing to generate outsized returns for our current and future investors,” wrote Morehead. “We believe this new Fund is the most efficient way to get exposure to blockchain.”

The launch of Pantera’s new fund comes shortly after it was revealed that Silicon Valley-based Andreessen Horowitz will be raising a cryptocurrency venture capital fund of as much as $1 billion. Dragonfly Capital also announced in March its second $125 million fund to invest in crypto-focused entrepreneurial projects. 

As bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, continues to climb in price, investor interest grows as well. Those however that only value the currency as an investable asset are missing the point, Morehead said. 

“One of my reasons for owning bitcoin is, in fact, that I think prices will go up,” Morehead wrote. “The other one is I think it will dramatically improve the lives of 3.5 billion people”

Pantera remains bullish on bitcoin, predicting the price will hit $115,000 by August of this year. Pantera is also closely following ethereum and other decentralized finance projects that Morehead believes will be the future. 

“The grip centralized finance companies have on the world’s population is waning,” Morehead wrote. “Power being devolved to the people is evident in the rise of decentralized finance.”