The Pantera Bitcoin Master Fund, a Bitcoin-related hedge fund managed by Pantera Capital, is backed by major Wall Street players Fortress Investment Group, Benchmark and Ribbit Capital. Some relationship between Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) and Pantera had been suspected, but nothing definitive was known until now. Dan Primack of CNN Money has confirmed a few details regarding Fortress and Pantera Capital’s new Bitcoin hedge fund.
Fortress and Pantera
In his article published March 18th, Primack confirms Fortress has invested directly in Pantera Bitcoin Partners, but the exact amount has not been disclosed. Furthermore, all future purchases of Bitcoin (or other crytpocurrencies) undertaken by Fortress will be made through Pantera.
Primack’s earlier report
After doing some sleuthing late last year, in December Primack wrote an article hypothesizing that Fortress was getting ready to launch a Bitcoin hedge fund. “Last December, I wrote that Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) was preparing to launch a fund that would buy and hold Bitcoin. I also wrote that while details were scarce,” there was “some relationship to a new Bitcoin-related fund raised by Pantera Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund whose clients are known to include several Fortress executives.”
It turns out that Fortress is not actually launching a Bitcoin hedge fund, but they are a significant partner with Partner Bitcoin Partners, the limited liability company controlling Pantera’s Bitcoin fund.
Bitcoin Hedge fund has at least $147 million in assets
Primack’s article also highlighted the fact that the new fund had assets of $147 million according to a regulatory filing made in December of last year, but the source of the assets was not disclosed. The article went on to say that although there is no official word yet on how much Fortress, Benchmark or Ribbitt have invested in Pantera or how much Bitcoin they already have committed to the open-ended hedge fund. Primack did confirm with a source from Fortress that “some” of the $147 million in Pantera Capital’s new Bitcoin fund was from them.
