Cryptocurrency hedge fund Neural Capital announced it would close after losing half of its capital. The fund was launched in 2017.
According to local media reports, the crypto assets of the Neural Capital fund were liquidated back in December, and some of the cash is still kept in escrow accounts, which violates the previously agreed storage periods for several months. However, the fund is already returning the remaining funds to investors. By 2019, Neural Capital managed over $ 13 million in assets and worked with over 40 investors.
These include Greylock venture partner Joshua Elman and Expa partner Hooman Radfar. The minimum deposit for each investor was $ 250,000. In December, the fund was revoked from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration, and this year Neural Capital stopped filing mandatory financial statements with California regulators.
Fund managers Arij Nazir and Christopher Keshian did not have sufficient experience in digital asset management, but when they opened Neural Capital in 2017, they worked with several other funds. Nazir and Keshian were consultants to the investment firm Protocol Ventures, which has already invested in several cryptocurrency hedge funds, including Neural Capital.
In addition, Keshian was the founder of Apex Capital, which was never launched due to an unsuccessful ICO, the organizers of which were unable to raise $ 100 million. According to local media reports, Keshian left his post at Neural Capital in 2019, and since then does not keep in touch with Nazir. Keshian said he was working on another project, but did not want to provide detailed information about it.
Earlier, Protocol Ventures partner Rick Marini said that in the end there will be about 50 funds that will work with large institutional investors. He spoke about this back in 2018, when many leading hedge funds were already concerned about a significant decrease in the inflow of new investments.
As a reminder, two cryptocurrency hedge funds were announced last month: Tetras Capital and Prime Factor Capital.
