SAN FRANCISCO, May 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Bitwise Asset Management, creator of the world's first cryptocurrency index fund, the
HOLD 10 Private Index Fund, announced a series of significant enhancements to its flagship product and its executive team to support accelerating growth in institutional demand for crypto funds.
- New Institutional Class for HOLD 10: The firm announced the creation of a new Institutional Class for its fund, offering a reduced management fee of 2.0% for accounts with more than $1 million in net deposits. The fund's Investor Class continues to be available to all accredited investors with a minimum investment of just $25,000 and a management fee of 2.5%.
- Weekly Liquidity: The firm announced the move to Weekly Liquidity for its flagship product, allowing clients to deposit or withdraw money from the fund on a weekly basis. Previously, deposits were available every two weeks and withdrawals were available quarterly.
- Teddy Fusaro Hired As COO: The firm announced that Teddy Fusaro joined as Chief Operating Officer. He was previously Senior Vice President and Head of Portfolio Management and Capital Markets at IndexIQ, the ETF issuer unit of New York Life Investment Management, a firm with over $550 billion in AUM. Prior to that, Teddy was Vice President of Portfolio Management and co-head of Trading and Operations at Direxion Investments, a $13 billion alternative ETF manager. Earlier, Teddy spent time in both equity derivatives and credit derivatives at Goldman Sachs & Co.
- Former Barclays Global Investors CFO Alison Davis, Others Join Firm As Advisors and Investors: The firm announced that Alison Davis, former Chief Financial Officer of Barclays Global Investors and current board director for the Royal Bank of Scotland, joined the firm as an advisor and investor. Other significant new advisors/investors joining the firm include Anup Agarwal, Chief Investment Officer for Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corporation; and Matthew Le Merle, Managing Partner of both Fifth Era and former partner and practice lead at Monitor Group and AT Kearney.
"Bitwise's goal is to make institutional-quality exposure to the cryptomarkets as simple, secure, and flexible as possible," said Hunter Horsley, Chief Executive Officer of Bitwise. "We're thrilled to be improving the product and our ability to serve our clients."
Bitwise's flagship fund, the HOLD 10 Private Index Fund, tracks a market-cap-weighted index of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, representing approximately 80% of the total market capitalization of the cryptomarket. The fund launched on Nov. 22, 2017, and is available to accredited investors. Since inception, the fund has significantly outperformed Bitcoin, delivering a 43.4% return against 13.9% for Bitcoin through April 29, 2018.
"I'm thrilled to join Bitwise as an advisor as the firm continues to grow its presence in the institutional market," said Alison Davis, Board Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland and former CFO for Barclays Global Investors. "There is significant pent-up interest among institutional investors for high-quality exposure to the crypto market, and Bitwise is leading the industry with its well-designed, broad-based and diversified index fund."