with Bitcoin 2024 Fast-approaching – July 25-27 in Nashville, Tennessee – three venture capital fund managers will compete to win $1 million in seed capital at Bitcoin Alpha Competition Powered by Samara Alpha Management In partnership with Bitcoin Pro Magazine.
at recent days PodcastBitcoin Magazine sat down with the judges of the Bitcoin Alpha competition to discuss the state of the Bitcoin market and how individual investors are leveraging their resilience in the face of larger capital allocations as Bitcoin moves into the era of institutional adoption.
Patrick Lowry, Bitcoin Alpha judge and CEO Samara Assets GroupHe believes that spot ETFs have been a huge success, but trillions of dollars of institutional capital have yet to seize the opportunity for “the best form of money that humans have ever conceived,” largely because of regulatory and regulatory burdens. This has led smaller organizations—family offices and individual investors—to seize the opportunity.
Commenting on his experience at Deutsche Digital, one of the first Bitcoin ETF issuers in Europe, Lowry said: “I can attest to how difficult it is to become an asset manager. It is incredibly difficult to start and build your own asset management company. I can’t even tell you how many times I have been beaten up by a myriad of regulators and compliance officers.”
“So one of the things I’ve always wanted to do is empower new-age managers and emerging asset managers in this asset class that I believe in so strongly. (Help them) in a way that they don’t have to go through the same hurdles that I went through six or seven years ago.”
Joining Lori as judges on the jury is Adel Abdelali, IT Manager at Samara Alpha ManagementJack Elliott, CTO of Animus Technology And the winner of the inaugural Bitcoin Alpha competition.
Abdul Ali, who has decades of experience in hedge funds, noted that Bitcoin — compared to traditional assets — presents a unique risk profile with its increased volatility. This volatility, especially on the upside, reduces the need for leverage to generate returns. Abdul Ali believes that eliminating the need for leverage gives capital allocators a unique option compared to fixed income arbitrage, saying:
“Anytime you have a non-leveraged strategy that is generating high returns and then you have a capital drawdown… you don’t have to liquidate your investment. You can keep trading as long as you need to… Any type of leveraged strategy, no matter how safe you think it is, will eventually be subject to (a margin call).” This clearly provides a new way to manage investment risk and another tool in the toolbox when seeking return.
While bitcoin has certainly benefited from the improved sentiment around Donald Trump’s recent positive comments about the asset, even these types of moves can pose risks for fund managers. Jack Elliott, the chief technology officer who focuses on improving his AI-based firm Animus’ strategies, pointed to the importance of flexibility and resilience to secondary risks when it comes to modeling and trading the bitcoin market.
“It’s just about recognizing the reality… This is a very young space and it’s evolving very quickly and there are going to be a number of different factors that change the way the market behaves. Some of those factors will be incremental changes… I think there will be a number of those changes in the future… For us, it’s about staying on the horse… It’s an interesting problem because (market modeling) He is “Intractable.”
On July 25, Laurie, Abdelali and Elliott will select the winner of a $1 million seed capital award to enable a venture capital fund manager to scale their fund strategy, by choosing from the following three finalists:
- boreal.xyz
- L1 return
- Hill Valley Capital
The Bitcoin Alpha competition is one of four total tracks in the larger competition. Bitcoin Demo Day 2024Where top founders and projects in open source, mining + energy, and layer 2 + scaling will present their vision to top venture investors and audience members.
Bitcoin Magazine is owned by BTC Inc, which also owns and operates the world’s largest Bitcoin conference, the Bitcoin Conference.