Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Fortress Investment Group to Launch Bitcoin Fund

New York City-based Fortress Investment Group, a publicly traded company, is reportedly arranging to launch a bitcoin investment fund.


It is becoming reported that the investment vehicle could be an unlisted Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).


It appears that there might be some association in between Fortress’s effort and that of San Francisco-based Pantera Capital.


Pantera, which has as customers some Fortress executives, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) an investment advisor entity named Pantera Bitcoin Advisors, LLC.


The filing shows Pantera Capital as the owner of the LLC, with Pantera principal Dan Morehead as its CEO.


Listed as a hedge fund, it shows that its total worth at the filing date of December four was $ 147m, with 26 investors contributing at least $ 250,000.


That would make the fund significantly larger than that of SecondMarket’s Bitcoin Investment Trust. As CoinDesk has reported, that fund has been able to amass over $ 60m from accredited investors in its initial three months.


An additional ETF, filed with the SEC earlier this year, was the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, started by the Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame, who have been massive investors in bitcoin to the point of appearing boisterous. However the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has been stuck in regulatory limbo given that its initial filing.


Institutional interest in bitcoin has been heating up. Wedbush Securities not too long ago released a report that was very bullish about bitcoin’s prospects. The firm proclaimed that the value of a single bitcoin could attain $ 98,500.


And Bank of America released its personal report about bitcoin not long ago, saying that the distributed virtual currency has “clear possible for growth”.


Fortress, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is reportedly arranging to announce the fund at the Bitcoin New Years Eve Bash becoming held tonight at 40 Broad Street in New York City.


That location is next to the NYSE. In fact, it homes anything referred to as the NYC Bitcoin Center, an effort that has been launched to educate investors about BTC.


It’s not clear no matter whether Fortress is funding the NYC Bitcoin Center. On a Craiglist job posting for the center, it claims to be “New York’s premier digital currency center”.


It’s anticipated that elevated Wall Street interest will continue in 2014. Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket, which produced the Bitcoin Investment Trust, not too long ago mentioned as a lot to Entreprenuer Magazine.


“We’re three to six months away from Wall Street dollars moving into Bitcoin in a large way,” he said.


Charting image via Shutterstock


View Fortress Investment Group to Launch Bitcoin Fund on CoinDesk.



CoinDesk







Fortress Investment Group to Launch Bitcoin Fund

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