Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen exits crypto startup Radkl amid bear market: Report

by · August 2, 2022

Steve Cohen, the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Management, has reportedly exited his investment in crypto trading firm Radkl.

According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report citing a Radkl spokesperson, Cohen has reduced his exposure to crypto investments after leaving the trading firm. However, the spokesperson reportedly said that Radkl was still “extremely well capitalized with its current investors” and continued to grow.

Cohen, whose net worth was estimated at more than $17 billion, has backed crypto and blockchain projects both using his personal portfolio and through Point72. Cointelegraph reported in September 2021 that the hedge fund manager was part of a $50 million funding round for non-fungible token company Recur, and backed a $21 million round for crypto analytics firm Messari through Point72.

While four CEOs reportedly left Radkl in 2022, the company listed only one vacancy on its website at the time of publication — for a Linux engineer based in New York. In contrast, Point72 is said to have hired Elie Galam in June to lead the hedge fund’s crypto arm in an attempt to increase trading in digital assets.

The reported investment came amid extreme volatility in the prices of many cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in what many have referred to as a bear market or the next crypto winter. However, a June report by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested that despite bearish trends, roughly 66% of the 89 hedge funds surveyed planned to increase exposure to crypto by the end of 2022.

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“We are interested in investment opportunities in the emerging set of infrastructure companies that are bridging the crypto and non-crypto worlds for financial services, businesses and consumers,” Point72 said in an April blog post. “Ultimately helping to bring crypto to millions of businesses and billions of people around the world.”

Point72 reported as of April 1 that it had more than $24 billion in assets under management. The firm is also reportedly subleasing some of its New York City office space to Coinbase in June 2021.