Witter Family Office focuses on crypto, ‘still believes’ in blockchain
by Arthur · July 11, 2022
The Witter Family Office, which has deep roots in Wall Street, is overtaking its large cryptocurrency and blockchain portfolio, but “continues to believe” in the sector despite recent price declines, according to the co-founder. Sherry Pryor Witter, CEO of the Witter Family Office, said that crypto and blockchain accounted for about 40% of the office’s assets at the top. With the recent losses in both tokens and companies, Witter has sold off all but the top 10 cryptocurrencies and written down many of its venture capital investments, she said. But, she said, she still has great faith in the asset class. “I think this is a great time to get into the better crypto projects,” said Witter, who began buying cryptocurrencies in 2018. “I feel like this crypto flush we really did did a good job of getting rid of the bad actors. “The recent events have been unfortunate, but if you can choose the right projects, … I think the return will be strong going forward.” Witter is one of a large and growing group of family offices that have become important players in crypto. A recent survey of family offices in a poll by BNY Mellon and Harris found that 77% of family offices explored or invested in crypto. One in five was actively invested in crypto. Family innovation Witter said that innovation has always been at the heart of the Witter family. Dean Witter, who started selling shares and bonds door-to-door, founded Dean Witter & Co. in 1924 and built it into one of the largest brokerage firms in the United States Sherry Pryor Witter, who is married to Michael D. Witter, dean. Witter’s grandson ran six hedge funds and worked for investor Eddie Lampert before launching the Witter Family Office with Michael in 2011. Like many of the newer family offices, Witter sets aggressive investment goals and aims to surpass many of the public stock markets and bonds. “We are in growth mode,” she said. She has four main strategies – equities, private equity, venture capital and trading. At the moment, she said that the trading business has been the strongest, focusing on trading with the wild daily fluctuations in commodities, currency and crypto. Her trading profits have “more than offset” her second decline in crypto, she said, including losses from venture capital investments in crypto companies. “In my crypto trading, I have done very well,” she said. However, Witter admits that her broader strategy of becoming a “crypto and blockchain” family office has had to change. She has sold the office’s less and less successful tokens to focus on what she calls the “top 10”, which includes bitcoin, ethereum and the other largest tokens. Her venture and direct investment strategy, in which the family office took hold in crypto and blockchain startups, has been reduced even more. “For my venture capital side, emotionally I have marked it down to zero,” she said. “I think technically it could be down 70%, maybe 75%, depending on the project. I did not liquidate. But in my mind I have marked them to zero.” Her favorite investments in crypto right now include Flare Network, which she says “will be the Swift of crypto,” and Homium, a digital platform for real estate and real estate financing. By flushing out “bad actors”, Witter said the current crash and wave of bankruptcies is a result of “bad actors” and speculators who needed to be cleared of the crypto market, and none of them have led her to deviate from her central thesis. . She assumes that blockchain and crypto will revolutionize payment systems, finance and banking in the long run, and has been in frequent contact with other family offices and large crypto investors about whether to sell. “The people I know in crypto are very tight,” she said. “It felt like we were on a plane that went down, and we all hold on to the armrest, we tremble and we” are you going to pull the shaft? No. Are you going to pull the shaft? No.’ So no one was bailing. No one should sell their positions. But we were going down together. If you have enough dry powder, you will keep it … I believe in technology. “When it comes to stocks, Witter said that while there will still be volatility this summer,” this is a good point to get into. stocks, to enter long-term positions that are only long-term. Because I’m looking at P / E [ratios] and I look at valuations. I’m not able to call the bottom, but I feel we’re close. “
