BitGo has added capital introduction (cap intro) services, a kind of marketing activity carried out among hedge fund investors, to its suite of white-glove crypto brokerage services.
Through a series of invitation-only roundtables with hedge fund managers, BitGo Prime says it will bring together asset managers, family offices, sovereign funds, pension funds, endowments and high-net-worth individuals. Think of it as a way for BitGo, not Coinbase, to land the next MicroStrategy.
Prime brokerage, a term that means different things to different people, comprises a bundle of services including custody, lending and taking care of clearing and settlement. In the traditional financial world it’s often provided by large investment banks to hedge fund clients.
Read more: Behind ‘Prime Broker’ Buzzword Lies a Complex Strategy Game for Crypto Firms
BitGo Prime began offering crypto lending services at the end of last year, and added the ability to trade directly out of cold storage (crypto kept at an arm’s length from the internet). In April of this year, BitGo acquired Lumina, a firm that does tax reporting and portfolio accounting.
Cap intro – the concept was supposedly introduced by Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage in 1997 to connect clients with target investors – plays a prominent role in traditional markets. BitGo is now including it for crypto – but with a twist, said BitGo Prime CEO Nick Carmi.
“We’re adding a slightly different twist to cap intro services from a crypto perspective, using it also as a way to educate the investor community in the financial market space about crypto,” said Carmi.
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BitGo is hosting its first cap intro event today, Tuesday, where three managers will present their strategies.
BitGo’s presenting managers are Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead, portfolio manager Delfos Machado Neto and LedgerPrime Chief Investment Officer Shiliang Tang.
Read more: Ex-Pantera Partner’s New Crypto Fund Is ‘Not for the Faint of Heart’
“We at Pantera welcome BitGo’s initiative to launch cap intro for digital assets and we were delighted to participate,” Morehead said in a statement. “This is yet another step forward in merging digital assets with the traditional financeworld and providing the education, tools and solutions institutional investors need to participate in this growing asset class.”
BitGo says it is planning more of the introductory events in the coming year.
“I think you can do a lot with these events,” said Carmi. “We plan to do them possibly on a quarterly basis. Maybe in Q1 we will invite managers in the Asia time zone and also do an event in Europe.”