Pantera Capital is an asset manager that prioritizes blockchain technology and digital currency-related enterprises, currencies, and projects.
The business acts as an investment adviser for crypto and blockchain startups and directly invests in these businesses. American clients are Pantera Capital Board’s primary focus.
Who Is Pantera Capital?
Pantera Capital stands apart as an American investment fund focused on virtual money. As measured by assets under management, it is the biggest cryptocurrency hedge fund. Co-CIO Joey Krug, who created the first significant Ethereum initiative, also helped start the company in 2003 with Dan Morehead (ex-Tiger Management).
When bitcoin was selling for $65 BTC in 2013, Pantera established the first crypto fund in the United States. Shortly after, the company unveiled the world’s first venture fund dedicated to blockchain technology. Joey Krug, CIO of Pantera, also helped create Augur, an early Ethereum-based decentralized program. Pantera pioneered the early-stage token industry in 2017.
Seed, early-stage, and growth investments are the firm’s sweet spot. They favor businesses in the following industries: business-to-business, business-to-consumer, media, blockchain, software as a service, mobile, cybersecurity, infrastructure, financial technology, the IoT, and technology.
History
Pantera is an investment business established in 2003 by Daniel Morehead in Menlo Park, California. Its primary concentration was on international macro hedge funds. In 2013, the company pivoted to the blockchain business when it received funding from prominent venture capital companies Fortress Equity Firm, Benchmark, and Ribbit Capital.
Pantera claims to be the initial American-based Bitcoin and crypto technology investment business, having shifted focus from effectively managing macro and private equity investments in 2013. Since the company’s refocused, it has amassed several high-profile blockchain startup investments, including Brave, ShapeShift, Zcash and Ripple. Pantera’s first $10 million investment in Bitstamp was the biggest single acquisition in a bitcoin enterprise.
Pantera introduced the BitIndex in 2014 to monitor the growth of the bitcoin economy by looking at metrics, including the number of people searching for “bitcoin” on Google, the number of businesses that accept it as payment, and the difficulty of mining bitcoin. Bitcoin’s price isn’t included in the index, nor is buying and selling activity.
BitPesa is a blockchain payments firm and virtual international currency specializing in transactions from and to African markets. Pantera spearheaded a $1 million investment round for the company in 2015. To invest in public blockchain initiatives that use tokens, Pantera Capital launched the Pantera ICO Trust LP in 2016 to raise $105 million.
As of 2018, Pantera Capital earned over $10,000,000,000.00 on its investments. The company had gathered over $126 million by its unveiled its latest crypto investment in 2019, which would be used to back more established startups in the field.
Pantera Investments
Sender Wallets
Pantera Capital led a private round of funding of US$4.5 million for Sender, a top NEAR-based eco-wallet, which also included contributions from Crypto.com, Jump Crypto, Amber, SevenX, D1 Ventures, Puzzle, Shima Capital, and GFS Ventures. In addition, many other prominent NEAR ecosystem initiatives, like Octopus, Paras, and Ref Finance, also contributed to this investment round.
Following a seed round of funding for Sender in April 2022, which Metaweb Ventures headed. The Sender wants to use the funds from this latest round of funding to grow its research and development staff, improve the Sender Wallet’s security, and create a broader wallet ecosystem.
Pantera Capital General Partner Paul Veradittakit said, “As the top crypto bank inside the NEAR ecosystem, Sender is enjoying incredible user engagement, and we are eager to assist them in achieving the next level.” The sender provides a complete range of web plugins and Android and iOS applications.
Revolving Games
Revolving Games, a producer of free-to-play mobile games, has expanded into the third dimension. The business revealed on Friday that it had secured a total of $26 million in early capital from various investors.
Pantera Capital spearheaded the most recent funding round, which included participation from Animoca, Dapper Labs, Polygon, and Rockstar Games creator Dan Houser.
Having worked as a writer on Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption” titles, Houser is an accomplished game creator. Now, he serves as an adviser and investor at Revolving Games, where he has joined the company’s advisory board.
Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, and Paul Veradittakit, managing partner at Pantera Capital, said in a statement that they were “happy” to be stakeholders in Revolving Games.
Stacked
The developer of a web3 video and live streaming network in Los Angeles, California, Stacked, has secured US$12.5M in Series A investment.
Pantera Capital spearheaded the round, while GFR Fund, Z Venture Capital, Alexandr Wang, Eddy Lu, and Carl Pei also participated.
The money will be used toward expanding the company’s advertising, content creation, and employee search efforts. After establishing a foothold in the North American market, Stacked intends to grow into the mobile-centric markets of Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia.
Initiated in March 2021 under Alex Lin’s direction, Stacked is a user-run web3 video and live streaming platform. The company’s services and business approach are centered on empowering artists to retain a more significant portion of their earnings via a governance token tied to various performance measures. In addition, tokenized assets provide a promising avenue for future creator-audience interaction and content monetization.
Pantera’s Impact on The Crypto Space
Pantera’s early investments span the blockchain ecosystem. Institutional asset management created the first U.S. bitcoin fund and blockchain technology startup fund. Joey Krug, Pantera’s co-CIO, founded Augur, one of the initial decentralized apps based on Ethereum. He has a unique view on developing markets and legal strategies.
Bienvenu notes the “prolonged inability of authorities to establish a haven or better direction” Many constructing in the sector have no 100% compliant crypto avenue.
Due to that, I’d have seen many initiatives decide to decentralize quickly,” she adds. Bienvenu thinks we might reach a stage when crypto legislation can’t be implemented since there needs to be a clear leader. Gary Gensler, the incumbent SEC director, and his predecessors believed Ethereum was an unlicensed commodity offering when it started.
“Why hasn’t anyone enforced? Who will they sue?” Because Ethereum is decentralized, fining someone and anticipating them to modify the protocol would not work.
“When nobody oversees the protocol, it’s hard to make policy,” she argues. “Regulatory agencies may not realize they’re creating an obsolete future for themselves.” If crypto regulatory legislation isn’t feasible, it matters how well thought out it is.
Bienvenu expects procedures will be implemented before future crypto regulatory debates.
Dan Morehead is sure that blockchain innovation will proceed regardless of the economy. A venture capitalist’s long-term optimism in blockchain technology contrasts with the current market sentiment.
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