Katherine Ross

Let’s wind the clock back for a second: remember <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arca-blocktower-merger-token-market">Blocktower’s merger with Arca</a>?&nbsp;



Let me refresh your memory. Last year, Arca announced that it was snapping up Blocktower, but there were some caveats. The venture capital side of the business, for example, was not included in the merger.&nbsp;



Today we’ve got an answer to what’s next for them: The team formerly behind Blocktower Capital — Thomas Klocanas, Steven Venino, and Winnie Lau — founded a new firm called Strobe.



For Klocanas, it made sense to be more independent. And then there’s the bonus of staying small when most shops in crypto expand while things are good. Plus, their focus now is only VC and they don’t have to worry about other sides of the business.&nbsp;



“Our internal determination was that what served our LPs and our strategy and our portfolio the best was thus far, having been very patient, very contrarian and largely independent, despite having been under the umbrella of another asset manager, Blocktower,” — which let the team focus on longer-term venture investing, he told me.&nbsp;



The team’s in the fourth year of deployment with its $150 million first fund, which they still deploy capital out of and expect to do so for the rest of the year, according to Klocanas.&nbsp;



The team is expected to “kick off a new $100 million raise” for its second fund. Klocanas told me that the timeline for that second fund is slightly in the air, though it could happen in the “coming weeks to months.”



While Klocanas was tight-lipped about the announcements we can expect to hear, he teased a couple of investments that’ll be announced shortly… just to pique your interest. When I hear more, trust me, we’ll be talking about it.&nbsp;



Beyond Strobe’s debut, Klocanas and I spoke about the current environment — namely that I’ve been told it’s a bit annoying to be a founder right now with everyone so obsessed with narratives and token prices and not so focused on the fundamentals of it all.&nbsp;



For Strobe, it’s about finding companies that’ll not only be around in five years (aka a millennia in crypto) but also projects that have a focus on the aforementioned fundamentals because, understandably, something like revenue is nice.&nbsp;



“We take the view that it&#8217;s not sustainable to trade billions of dollars if you&#8217;re not making hundreds of millions of dollars empowering hundreds of millions of users,” he told me.



A lot of the founders they’ve backed recently have experience building up multiple projects. They have Morpho, Ethena, Ledger, TYB, Aptos and Maple Finance all under their portfolio, if you’re looking to get a sense of who they’re interested in.



Klocanas said the founders he looks for aren’t necessarily the ones posting a lot on CT, but rather they’re “deeply obsessed” with pinpointing and solving for a problem using crypto as leverage.&nbsp;



Now we’ll just have to keep an eye on Klocanas, Venino and Lau’s next steps.



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BlockTower

Former Blocktower VCs plot new $100M fund

Bessie Liu

Cryptocurrency investment firm BlockTower Credit and DeFi lending protocol MakerDAO will vote on whether to fund $220 million in so-called <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-real-world-assets-defis-newest-yield" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">real-world assets</a> through Centrifuge.



If the vote passes, BlockTower will provide $70 million in junior capital —  that is, funds allocated to speculative activity and used for high-risk, high-reward investments — and Maker will approve $150 million in senior capital to create a $220 million pool on Centrifuge, a Berlin-based protocol that is bridging real-world assets to DeFi through tokenization. 



A community <a href="https://vote.makerdao.com/polling/QmY85FT6#poll-detail" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">greenlight poll</a> was passed on Aug. 15, with over 75% of MKR token holders voting in favor of including BlockTower Credit in the Maker Protocol via the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/rune-christensen-wants-out-of-maker" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Core Units</a>. But further voting is required to complete the onboarding of real-world asset collateral in the Maker protocol.



“We believe Maker’s long term interests are best served through a diversified set of high-quality arrangers, credit exposures, and other partners — we look forward to helping Maker raise the bar,” Kevin Miao, head of credit at BlockTower, wrote in a <a href="https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip6-collateral-onboarding-application-blocktower-credit-arranger/16900" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">governance forum</a> post. 



Funding of real-world credit assets will be powered through Tinlake — a Centrifuge smart contract on the Ethereum network.



RWA owners are able to create a pool of their assets and offer it to DeFi investors on Tinlake. These assets will create a stable yield for investors and provide liquidity to issuers who set up and operate the pools. In the case of BlockTower and Maker, the <a href="https://forum.makerdao.com/t/blocktower-credit-introduction-arranger-proposal/16535" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proposed stable yield</a> will sit at 4%.



According to Centrifuge, Tinlake’s smart contract eliminates a third party “trust layer” by embedding the process into the code.&nbsp;



“We think it&#8217;s a prime example of how institutional investors are moving to safer crypto investments, ones that provide true utility and tangible ROI,” a Centrifuge spokesperson told Blockworks.



Centrifuge Tinlake has already brought over $25 million in assets to Maker through existing real-world asset vaults.&nbsp;



Voting will go on chain on Friday Dec. 9 and a decision is expected to be made by early next week.



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MakerDAO May Expand Non-cryptoasset Portfolio With BlockTower, Centrifuge

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_60bfbd655b864" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>BlockTower has had prominent investors such as billionaire hedge-fund manager Marc Lasry and former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo</li>
 <li>The digital investment firm has raised $25 million to invest in DeFi projects and assets</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Digital asset firm BlockTower Capital announced that it has acquired its rival Gamma Point Capital on Tuesday morning.



This is more than one of the investment firm’s big moves of 2021. The 12-person team also raised $25 million for decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/blocktower-bets-big-on-defi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> in March.&nbsp;



“This is an amazing milestone in our mission to build the #1 market-neutral fund for digital assets,” Gamma Point said in a <a href="https://gammapoint.capital." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> on their website.&nbsp;



The deal is valued at $35 million.



BlockTower was co-founded in 2017 by Ari Paul, who previously managed an endowment investment office at the University of Chicago, and Matthew Goetz, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs.&nbsp;



Goetz is taking a “market neutral strategy”, adding that the digital asset firm should make returns regardless if it’s a bull or bear market, he said in an interview with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-08/blocktower-acquires-rival-crypto-hedge-fund-gamma-point?sref=4xvCR26G" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg.</a>&nbsp;



“We are probably in something like the seventh inning of this bull market,” he said. “It still has a ways to go. But I offer that very humbly, I don’t know if it’s six months or 12 months or 18 months to continue,” he added.



Paul also <a href="https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul/status/1402261388328906753?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that he was “thrilled to welcome the Gamma Point team to the family.”



Former US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo and billionaire hedge-fund manager Marc Lasry are among BlockTower’s most well-known investors.&nbsp;



BlockTower did not respond to Blockworks&#8217; requests for comment about the acquisition.



This story was updated on June 9, 2021, at 9:36 am EDT.