SAN FRANCISCO – (COMMERCIAL THREAD) – Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s largest cryptocurrency index fund manager, today announced the completion of its Series B. The round was led by Elad Gil and Electric Capital, joined by new backers including Third Point LLC of Daniel Loeb, Willoughby Capital of Daniel Och, Moore Strategic Ventures of Louis Bacon, Vetamer Capital of Paul Eisenstein and Coinbase Ventures, alongside individual investors Henry Kravis, Stanley Druckenmiller, David McCormick (CEO of Bridgewater ), Daniel Sundheim (D1 CIO), Kevin Warsh (former governor of the US Federal Reserve), Nadeem Meghji (head of Blackstone), Tracey Warson (former director of Citi Private Bank), Fidji Simo (head of Facebook), Helen Riley (Google X CFO) and several others (full list below). Existing Bitwise backers including Highland Capital, Khosla Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Alison Davis, Adam Nash, and Naval Ravikant also participated.

Bitwise, currently profitable, plans to use the proceeds from its Series B cycle to strengthen its balance sheet and accelerate the national development of its organization, team and product line.

“Five years from now, while some investors will still be trading crypto portfolios themselves, many long-term investors will want to rely on the same financial advisors, processes, and brokers they use for all other asset classes. “said Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise. “Bitwise is focused on providing investment professionals with the products, training and relationships they need to manage crypto and blockchain investments on behalf of their clients and LPs for the long term. This new round of funding will help us significantly develop our organization, expand our offerings and consolidate our position as the leading crypto partner for professional investors. ”

The cycle follows several recent milestones for Bitwise. Assets under management grew more than 20-fold year over year, surpassing $ 1.2 billion at the end of the first quarter and bringing the company to profitability. Bitwise’s leadership in serving financial advisers continues to expand, with more than 200 financial advisory firms using Bitwise products and research to help clients access the cryptocurrency asset class. To deliver on its commitment to education and relationship support, the company has already doubled the size of the research, customer service and sales teams since the start of the year and plans to double them again by the next year. end of the year.

Bitwise’s suite of products also continued to grow. In February, the company launched the world’s first DeFi index fund, the Bitwise DeFi Crypto Index Fund, which has grown rapidly since its inception. In May, the company saw the launch of the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (NYSE: BITQ), the crypto industry’s premier ETF, which tracks the Bitwise Crypto Innovators 30 index of pure-play crypto stocks. These new funds join the flagship Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (OTCQX: BITW), the world’s largest crypto index fund, as well as the Bitwise Bitcoin Fund, Bitwise Ethereum Fund and other products. With the additional funding, Bitwise plans to continue to introduce new and innovative products to access the wide range of crypto opportunities.

The round was co-led by two existing investors, Elad Gil and Electric Capital. Elad is an accomplished Silicon Valley investor who has advised or invested in over a dozen iconic companies, such as Airbnb, Airtable, Coinbase, Figma, GitLab, Gusto, Instacart, Opendoor, Pinterest, PagerDuty, Samsara, Square , Stripe and Wish. Electric Capital is one of the largest crypto venture capital firms and an early investor in many top crypto protocols and companies, such as Bitwise, Bitnomial, and Kraken.

“Bitwise has established itself as the market leader among financial advisers and has tremendous momentum,” Gil said. “We believe their crypto investing solutions, education and top-notch customer service position them as leaders in what they do.”

“Bitwise is uniquely designed for crypto and seamlessly blends technology with asset management to navigate a complex space that requires capabilities fundamentally different from other asset classes,” said Avichal Garg, Managing Partner of Electric Capital. “Their focus on pure gaming will serve Bitwise and its customers well as this exciting space continues to evolve. ”

Several new backers from traditional financial circles, including Henry Kravis, co-founder of private equity firm KKR, and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC, are joining the round.

“Crypto is an exciting category with a lot of promise but also unique challenges,” Kravis said. “Bitwise is the best at what they do and essential for many professionals to feel comfortable participating in this growing space.”

“We are thrilled to support Bitwise,” said Loeb, CEO and CIO of Third Point. “Bitwise has assembled a world-class team, built professional quality products, and done whatever it takes to build a lasting institution in the crypto economy.”

Bitwise’s full list of new institutional investors includes Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC, Daniel Och’s Willoughby Capital, Louis Bacon’s Moore Strategic Ventures, Paul Eisenstein’s Vetamer Capital, Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital and Blockchain Co-Investors Alison Davis and Matthew Le Merle; new personal investors include Henry Kravis, Stanley Druckenmiller, Daniel Sundheim (D1 CIO), David McCormick (CEO of Bridgewater), Kevin Warsh (former governor of the US Federal Reserve), Nadeem Meghji (head of Blackstone Real Estate Americas), Fidji Simo (head of the Facebook application), Helen Riley (chief financial officer of Google X), Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz (president of the Charles Schwab Foundation), Tracey Warson (former director of Citi Private Bank), Charles Goldman ( former CEO of AssetMark), Mary Cranston (director of the visa board), Carolyn Everson (former vice president of Facebook), Julie Zhuo (former vice president of Facebook), Asha Sharma (COO of Instacart), Ashley Yuki (Instagram Product Manager), Howard Akumiah (Spotify Product Manager), Ranjana Clark (Head of Global MUFG Transaction Banking), Abby Adlerman (Boardpan CEO), Katia Verresen, Rebecca Macieira-Kaufma nn (former director of Citigroup’s international personal bank), Ben Stein (managing partner of Spruce House), Dave Fogel (co-founder of IndexIQ), CJ Fitzgerald (senior advisor to Summit Partners), Paul Sallaberry (advisor to administration of the UC Davis Foundation), Tom Schmidt (general partner of Dragonfly Capital), Stani Kulechov (founder of Aave) and Robert Leshner (founder of Compound Labs).

About Bitwise Asset Management

San Francisco-based Bitwise is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing crypto-asset managers. In the first quarter of 2021, Bitwise managed more than $ 1.2 billion through a growing suite of investment solutions. The company is known for managing the world’s largest crypto index fund (OTCQX: BITW) and pioneering products spanning Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and crypto-focused stock indices. Bitwise is focused on partnering with financial advisors and investment professionals to provide quality education and research. The Bitwise team combines technology expertise with decades of experience in managing and indexing traditional assets, from companies such as BlackRock, Blackstone, Facebook and Google, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Bitwise is backed by leading institutional investors and asset management executives, and has been featured in Institutional Investor, CNBC, Barron’s, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal.

DISCLOSURE OF RISKS AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal, nor will there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction. a jurisdiction in which such offering, solicitation or sale would be illegal prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

Any investment is subject to risk, including the possible loss of all money invested. As with any investment strategy, there is no guarantee that the investment objectives will be achieved and investors may lose money. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Investments in Bitwise’s products will be subject to the risks associated with investing in crypto assets, including cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens. Because cryptoassets are a new technological innovation with a limited history, they are a highly speculative asset. Future actions or regulatory policies may limit the ability to sell, trade, or use a cryptoasset. The price of a crypto-asset can be impacted by the transactions of a small number of holders of that crypto-asset. Cryptoassets can lose popularity, acceptance, or use, which can drive their price down. Cryptoassets and blockchain technology is new and developing. Currently, there are a limited number of publicly traded or publicly traded companies for which cryptoasset and blockchain technology represents an attributable and significant source of income.

Bitwise is the index provider for certain products. There is no guarantee or assurance that the methodology used to create the Index will allow funds that track this Index to achieve positive investment returns or outperform other investment products. Indices are unmanaged and do not include the effect of fees. For the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (NYSE: BITQ), which tracks the Bitwise Crypto Innovators 30 Index, Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC serves as the fund’s investment advisor, and the fund is distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co. (SIDCO ), which is not a subsidiary of Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC or any of its subsidiaries. It is important to carefully consider the investment objectives, risk factors, fees and expenses of a fund before investing. For BITQ, this and additional information can be found in the full prospectus or summary of the fund, which can be obtained by visiting www.BITQETF.com.

Some of Bitwise’s investment products are available to accredited institutional and individual investors through periodic and ongoing private placements. The investment objective of each product is that its actions (based on digital assets per share) reflect the value of the digital assets held by that product, less expenses and other liabilities. Since there is currently no repurchase program for certain products traded on a secondary market, there can be no assurance that the value of shares of such products will reflect the value of the assets held by such products, less expenses and other liabilities. and the shares of these proceeds can trade at a substantial premium or a substantial discount to the value of the assets held, less expenses and other liabilities; therefore, these products may not be able to meet their investment objectives.