Virtual asset firm Morgan Creek Digital has disclosed that it has successfully completed a fresh blockchain-focused venture capital scheme by raising $40 million, primarily through investments poured in by public pension fund duo. The hedge fund, backed by the well-known financial institution Morgan Creek Capital, has unveiled what it refers to as the Morgan Creek Blockchain Opportunities Fund, focused completely towards investing in the cryptocurrency industry.
Morgan Creek Digital disclosed that its assets under administration totaled more than $ 1 billion in March last year. In particular, the public pension pension funds, particularly the Fairfax County Police and Fairfax County Employee pension plans, are the two main investors in the fund.
It was was was was initially planned to raise $25 million, but was later on changed to $40 million due to huge interest shown by investors. The reported fund also involves the active involvement of a private foundation, a hospital system, an insurance company and university grant. One could see this happening. Rumors of public pension funds and university endowments that are willing to enough to invest in the cryptocurrency market have spun since CNBC announced that 2018 would seal their emergence in April last year.
On Christmas Eve, the founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital, Anthony “the Pomp” Pompliano, courted public pensions to invest in a blockchain sector with a blog, in which he described in detail his faith that Bitcoin could save the US from its imminent pension crisis.
In view of this, it should not be surprising about the investment made by the two public pension fund duo in the US blockchain domain.
Regarding fundraising, Pompliano said “The fundraising for this fund didn’t happen overnight, so it definitely took place before that article was written. We also have invested a material amount of the fund to date already.”
Notably, investors who have invested in the fund are said to have already taken exposure in blockchain-related companies such as Bakkt, Coinbase, Blockfi, Harbor, Open Finance Network, RealBlocks, Namebase, CityBlock Capital, Good Money, and Digital Assets Data.
Recently, the South Korean National Pension Fund, supposedly the world’s third largest public pension fund, has committed $2.6 billion won ($ 2.3 million) in four crypto exchanges via two funds focused on venture capital.
Because of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the of the regulatory issues faced by cryptocurrencies in South Korea, the government released an official statement almost at the same time deeming investment in in the digital currency market through local venture funds as “inappropriate” investments in the virtual currency market.
When questioned about the concerns raised by his new customers across most of the deal – making process, Pompliano remarked that, although it was a somewhat visionary decision in public pension history, it was mostly business as normal.
On the concerns, Pompliano commented as follows:
“The concerns were not so much legal as this is only a traditional venture experience. We haven’t tried this in past, so this was the first venture capital fund we tried to raise, and are quite happy with the results. But, the diligence process was quite arduous — exactly what you would expect from large institutional investors like these.”
