This Bitcoin-focused hedge fund outperformed bitcoin last year.
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210k Capital, the hedge fund for UTXO Management, was the fifth best performing single major hedge fund in 2024 according to HFR. It returned 164% net of fees in 2024. UTXO Management is the investing arm of BTC Inc., of Bitcoin Magazine and Bitcoin Conference fame.
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Single manager hedge funds are run by one entity, versus multi-manager or fund-to-fund hedge funds, which have multiple portfolio managers.
In HFR’s recap of its 2024 Global Hedge Fund Industry Report Q4 2024, the research firm revealed that cryptocurrency-focused hedge funds were “the leading area of overall [hedge fund] industry performance.” HFR’s index for cryptocurrency funds returned 59.81% in 2024.
UTXO Management’s banner 2024 performance puts it in conversation with leading hedge funds that focus on traditional assets and industries. And it has bitcoin to thank for that – or, more directly, bitcoin companies.
UTXO Management’s Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, Tyler Evans, said that the fund’s 2024 returns chiefly stemmed from its investment in bitcoin strategy companies, principally Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) and Metaplanet.
“Over the last 12 months, we went very hard into the bitcoin treasury-play thesis as as we really saw it play out with what Saylor is doing, and the opportunity to really globalize it…So we did that pretty heavily in 2024, with both Strategy as well as Metaplanet out of Japan, where we were the first bitcoin investors in the company,” Evans told Blockspace.
He said that the hedge fund holds 80% of its portfolio in bitcoin equities, which were a “big factor that drove [210k Capital’s] out-performance in 2024. A portion of that 80% includes public bitcoin miners, but the real money makers have been Metaplanet and Strategy, the latter of which 210k Capital held since the early days of its bitcoin strategy.
These companies, Evans explained, offer a novel form of securitized bitcoin exposure that makes it easier for everything from institutional firms to IRAs to pension funds to hold bitcoin-adjacent assets. As a result, “the investable landscape has grown significantly over the last few years,” he said, opening the door to “registered investment advisors, wealth managers, funds, and sophisticated family offices.”
This marks a shift from the fund’s early days when it courted self-made, high-net worth individuals who were typically more active investors managing their own portfolio to more passive investors whom manage pools of capital.
“We saw the demand for institutional capital to get exposure to Bitcoin and the role that these Treasury companies can serve is securitizing bitcoins for fixed income investors, the insurance funds, or the mutual funds,” said Evans.
“These institutional allocators have very defined mandates of what types of instruments that they can invest in. And that’s really the beauty of the whole playbook is securitizing bitcoin in these different formats that make it so that institutional allocators can invest into it.”
Bitcoin ETFs, first approved in January 2024, offer liquidity as well. With BlackRock on board – not to mention it recommending a 5% allocation to bitcoin – Evans said the Overton Window for how investors view bitcoin is shifting. So much so that the Wisconsin Teacher’s pension now holds bitcoin ETFs, as does the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
The only thing harder than winning the championship is defending your title. And with bitcoin down year-to-date, it raises the question: can 210k Capital top 2024?
Evans said that the fund hedges its positions with a number of auctions, but it’s also still “very bullish” on bitcoin in 2025. It’s even more bullish on exporting Michael Saylor’s corporate bitcoin treasury Strategy strategy to other financial markets.
“We think that there’s an opportunity for a bitcoin treasury company in every tier-one financial market globally,” he said.
UTXO Management had a large hand in standing up Metaplanet’s bitcoin treasury in Japan. Tyler Evans served as an independent director and UTXO Management partner Dylan Leclair acting as Metaplanet’s head of bitcoin strategy. Another UTXO portfolio company, The Smarter Web Company, is set to IPO on the Aquis Exchange in the U.K. this week.
Read: England’s Metaplanet? The Smarter Web Company eyes UK IPO with bitcoin strategy
Public bitcoin treasury companies like Metaplanet give traditional investors access to bitcoin where other vehicles are limited. In Japan, for example, there are no native bitcoin ETFs, and access to American ones is limited. This – plus Japan’s low interest rates and a lower capital gains tax on equities cryptocurrencies – make it ripe for Metaplanet to reap market share, Evans believes.
UTXO has its eye on multiple markets to incubate bitcoin treasury companies, including Latin America, Central America, the Middle East, Australia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some of these are already in the works “at various stages of maturity,” Evans teased, with some in the IPO planning stage and others raising capital.
“Our inbound deal flow of seasoned entrepreneurs who want to bring it to their own local market is growing massively,” he said.
