Sovereign Wealth Fund Hiring Blockchain Talent to Invest in Web3, Pantera Capital Raises $600M for 4th Fund from Endowment

Funds continue to flow into the cryptocurrency market, with Pantera Capital being the latest to raise funding for its another crypto venture fund.

Pantera Capital has raised $600 million for its fourth venture fund, according to tech news site The Information, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The fund is expected to reach $1 billion when it closes in March and will invest in venture equity and crypto tokens that have launched and are in development.

About 75% of the capital for the new fund is coming from institutional sources such as endowments, much different from the firm’s $175 million it raised in 2018, which was mainly funded by individuals, including wealthy crypto investors.

Just two months back in September, Pantera raised $369 million for its then-new blockchain fund. As of August, the firm had $4.7 billion in assets under management.

Tiger Management alum Dan Morehead founded Pantera in 2003 as a global hedge fund which later shifted its focus to digital currencies and since then has backed more than 80 blockchain companies and 65 early-stage deals, including Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple.

The reservations of Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and other institutions are surely dissipating as they increasingly invest in crypto space this year. “Institutions are coming” is certainly not a meme anymore.

Banks are also increasing their efforts with Fidelity, UBS Asset Management, and State Street Global Advisors, confirming that they are looking into the potential of offering exposure to crypto, much like rivals BlackRock and Invesco.

Assets in European exchange-traded products (ETPs) and mutual funds with crypto exposure have topped €10.5 billion, according to Morningstar data.

Fidelity said it was “keeping close to the evolution of cryptocurrencies” as part of their wider exploration of the potential for digital assets, while Clemens Reuter, global head of ETFs at UBS, said, “(Cryptocurrency is) an area everyone needs to look at the moment.”

Citi is also hiring 100 people over the next several months to bolster its blockchain and digital assets divisions. The bank has also made Puneet Singhvi the head of digital assets for its Institutional Clients Group (ICG) as of Dec. 1.

“We are focused on assessing the needs of our clients in the digital asset space,” Citi has said in a statement.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek is another one hiring more blockchain talent to lead the efforts in exploring opportunities in AI and Blockchain technologies, “which the firm believes are long-term trends and will have a transformational impact across multiple industries and geographies.”

As per the job description on LinkedIn, Temasek is prioritizing projects on multi-currency payments, financial assets tokenization, and self-sovereign identity with a secondary focus on making select investments into web 3 venture funds and direct investments.