Pantera's 19-Year-Old Whiz Kid Hired by Coinbase Founder's Fund

(Bloomberg) -- In the cryptocurrency world, if you haven’t made partner before you turn 20, what are you doing with your life?

Charles Noyes, an Orange County, California, native who left high school early in 2016 to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is exiting his job at crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital to help two finance titans start a digital-currency fund. He’ll be a partner alongside Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of crypto exchange Coinbase Inc., and Matt Huang, a former partner at venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, which will be an investor in the new company.

The three-man fund plans to invest in early-stage projects focused on cryptocurrencies, new blockchains and exchanges, said Noyes, who started mining Bitcoin in 2011. The 19-year-old left MIT after one year to join Pantera, where he moved up the ranks from intern to analyst to principal. After less than two years there, he was invited to help Ehrsam and Huang launch the new venture.

“Everyone’s kind of just accepted that I go do my own thing and hopefully don’t mess up too badly,” said Noyes, who lives in San Francisco. “I wanted to try my hand at sort of re-architecting the internet in a way that I think is more democratized.”

Many young traders have left traditional career paths to rise at crypto-related ventures. A number have left large Wall Street firms, including Brian Wirtz, who abandoned his position at Credit Suisse Group AG to start his own blockchain company, and former Barclays Plc’s Ateet Ahluwalia, who joined asset-management firm CoVenture.

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.