Pantera Says Crypto Hedge Fund Underperformed Bitcoin Last Month
Pantera Says Crypto Hedge Fund Underperformed Bitcoin Last Month
(Bloomberg) -- The digital-currency market has had a tumultuous year, and crypto hedge funds are feeling the pain.
Pantera Capital’s Digital Asset Fund, which includes a number of virtual currencies, dropped 26 percent in May, Chief Executive Officer Dan Morehead said in the Menlo Park, California-based company’s monthly investor letter Tuesday. That compares with Bitcoin’s drop of around 15 percent, and the fund’s surge of nearly 50 percent during the prior month. The fund is down 51 percent year-to-date.
Bitcoin has faced a reckoning after skyrocketing from less than $1,000 to nearly $20,000 in 2017. Skittish investors have dumped their tokens amid tax-related confusion and intensifying scrutiny from regulators around the world. The top digital coin has lost half of its value this year, a decline that mirrors the performance of Pantera’s fund during the same period.
The top contributors to the fund’s May downturn were Dash, Waves, Bitshares and OmiseGo, Pantera said in the letter. The firm didn’t offer further commentary about its performance, but did take the opportunity to critique Warren Buffett’s aversion to Bitcoin.
“Buffett avoided the dot coms, but he also missed Amazon, Facebook, Google Netflix, et al,” Pantera wrote. “If Berkshire buys Bitcoin as quickly as Apple -- it will be in 2045. Buckle in.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Lily Katz in New York at lkatz31@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, ;Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka, Randall Jensen
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