This Bitcoin-focused hedge fund outperformed bitcoin last year.
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.
