The market is waiting to find direction as a combination of looming geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty keep investors in a state of uncertainty.
Luckily, there’s a cheat sheet retail investors can call upon during times like these. Best of all, it’s readily accessible to all: tracking the smart money.
Their edge can become yours too.
Following the biggest brains in the space can give you invaluable insight into what they’re thinking. It’s paramount that you understand the landscape before developing your own thesis, which remains the key to long-term investment success.
As investors, one’s time horizon needs to extend beyond this week, month, or year. Only then can you drown out the noise and weather the fear, uncertainty and doubt (Fud). So long as your investment thesis remains intact, Fud also becomes a potential buying opportunity.
Let’s dive into some of the smartest players around.
TL;DR:
- Delphi Digital
- Multicoin Capital
- Alameda Research
- Three Arrows Capital
- Animoca Brands
- 1kx
Wu Blockchain has released a report about Venture Capital (VC) funds, looking into the token returns from various VCs and ranking them according to yields gained on the coins themselves.
As per @WuBlockchain’s Twitter, it’s worth reiterating that the “yields calculated in the article are not representative of VC investment performance, but are only a measure of the value of financing information for investors. It’s calculating the change of tokens after the release of financing news”.
Regardless, this report does give an indication (by current price of coins gains/loss) of where the smartest VCs are placing their bets, and can give us key insight into the narratives driving their decision-making. The report covers around 30 top-performing firms, but we’ll focus on whom we consider to be (based on track records) the smartest of the smart.
Delphi Digital
Delphi is a collaboration of independently owned and operated entities who share the “Delphi” brand.
Delphi Digital is extremely bullish on decentralized finance (DeFi) with an investment portfolio consisting of some of the top Layer-1s and DeFi platforms, including decentralized exchanges (DEXs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and lending/borrowing DeFi protocols.
With a young and vibrant team, the importance of play-to-earn (P2E) is highlighted by its partners dedicated to gaming, NFTs and the metaverse. Delphi’s position as lead investors in Yield Guild Games and All.art has put it firmly into the driving seat in this industry.
Portfolio picks: The best performing assets vs USD (1 year) are: AXS, SOL, LUNA, ETH and FRAX.
Source: https://messari.io/screener/multicoin-capital-portfolio-85C82968Multicoin Capital
Multicoin launched its hedge fund on October 1st, 2017 with a primary mission to accelerate the adoption of self-sovereign software. Since then, it has launched two venture funds, a number of special-purpose-vehicles (SPVs), and built out a global team to support its ventures.
It boasts one of the smartest teams ever assembled: Managing Partners Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain, not to mention General Partner, Vinny Lingham.
Multicoin’s investments encompass a world-changing, multi-chain thesis: a list of Layer-1 and Layer-2, cross-chain, internet-of-things (IOT) and DeFi investments which include the “who’s who” of blockchain.
Portfolio picks: The best performing assets vs USD (1 year) are: BTC, ETH, SOL, LUNA and NEAR.
Source: https://messari.io/screener/multicoin-capital-portfolio-screener–923DF389
Listed in size by market capitalization, the top 5 (in order): BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL, ALGO.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/multicoin-capital-portfolio/
Alameda Research
Founded by crypto’s youngest billionaire, Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research is a true multi-strategy, quantitative trading firm with sophisticated trading algorithms, fast-acting traders, institutional-grade systems and infrastructure, strong relationships in traditional finance (TradFi) as well as digital assets, and a broad coverage of crypto assets.
This allows them to trade large volumes in a variety of market conditions, accessing diverse sources of significant liquidity.
They are big Layer-1 investors, but also heavily invested in centralized exchanges (CEXs) and DEXs.
Portfolio picks: The best performing assets vs USD (1 year) are: ETH, BNB, SOL, FTT, LEO, OKB.
Source: https://messari.io/screener/alameda-research-portfolio-AA952B81
Listed in size by market capitalization, the top 5 (in order): BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL, UNI.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/alameda-research-portfolio/
Three Arrows Capital
Three Arrows Capital Ltd. (3AC) is a hedge fund established in 2012 which is focused on providing superior risk-adjusted returns. It was founded by “young whales” Kyle Davies and Su Zhu, who was only 25 at the time of 3ACs inception.
The majority of its holdings are in DeFi and base Layer-1s, with some in equity, funds and gaming NFTs, not to mention high-conviction investments into the metaverse, particularly early funding for the Solana-based, virtual reality (VR) metaverse Solice.
. Source: https://www.threearrowscap.com/select-investments/
Portfolio picks: The best performing assets vs USD (1 year) are: ETH, AVAX and HXRO
Source: https://messari.io/screener/three-arrows-capital-portfolio-screener-D9FFC56D
Listed in size by market capitalization, the top 5 (in order): BTC, ETH, DOT, UNI, AAVE.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/three-arrows-capital-portfolio/
Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is a juggernaut, the leading global developer leveraging popular brands, gaming, metaverse, AI, blockchain and mobile technology in order to develop engaging apps ranging from games to fitness solutions. Animoca has quickly become the leading name (and ultimate stamp of approval) for gaming, metaverse and NFT projects, thanks to its already phenomenal track record, and visionary leadership courtesy of the gigabrained Yat Siu.
Even if you don’t know quite why, chances are you know the name as being synonymous with absolute quality. For a deep-dive into Animoca Brands, check out our article here!
Source: https://www.animocabrands.com/investment-portfolio
Portfolio picks: Axie Infinity, Star Atlas, Yield Guild Games, Decentraland and REVV, which is a project of theirs. Source: https://messari.io/organization/animoca-brands
Listed in size by market capitalization, the top 5 (in order): SAND, AXS, FLOW, SUPER, YGG.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/view/animoca-brands-portfolio/
1kx
With the most surprisingly simple, HTML-based website you’ve seen since the late 1990’s, 1kx is an early-stage fund helping founders to bootstrap token networks.
Its strapline is as follows: Decentralized Token Economies Will Transform The World.
Founded by Lasse Clausen and Christopher Heymann, 1kx is built on the belief that “The grand vision of cryptoeconomics is therefore to extrapolate this success to embed cryptoeconomic incentives into everything; transactions, computation, storage, prediction, power.”
That’s what you call a thesis, and 1kx has been investing accordingly!
Portfolio picks: The best performing assets vs USD (1 year) are: SI, BPRO, LUNA, CQT and AMP.
Source: https://messari.io/screener/1kx-fund-portfolio-screener-0F8D1073
Listed in size by market capitalization, top 5 (in order): LUNA, AMP, ARWEAVE, CKB, QRDO.
Banter’s take
Money talks, and when smart money talks, we listen! What do the top players all have in common? For now, it seems that the biggest brains are all envisioning a multi-chain future (and placing bets accordingly). While Animoca may have cornered the smart-money market in terms of metaverse and blockchain gaming, every crypto VC is allocated, in varying degrees, to these two booming sectors of the space. Smart money is forward looking, diversified and combines high- and low-risk-adjusted plays. It accumulates the infrastructure (base Layer-1s and Layer 2s) and then works outwards, building portfolios that align with an overall, long-term thesis based on world changing use cases.
