Analyzing Shareholders of Public Crypto Firms

Per the above graphic, despite the broader pullback, Vanguard, Nikko and BlackRock reflect the top three largest holders of digital asset public equity. However, looking at funds with more active strategies, it's apparent that investors have sought more risk-off assets. For example, at the end of September 30, 2021 (Q3'21), Tiger Global ranked 9th across the above assets with a $179mm stake in Coinbase. During the same timeframe, Citadel ranked 11th ($122mm MicroStrategy position), SIG ranked 12th ($119mm across Coinbase, Silvergate, MicroStrategy, Riot and Marathon) and Millennium ranked 28th ($24mm Coinbase and $26mm MicroStrategy positions). Multi-manager investment vehicles like Citadel and Millennium operate with multiple portfolio managers who then collectively operate as one entity.^[1] These individual portfolio managers are held to tight risk constraints and shorter investment horizons than their single-manager peers. 

As previously researched, investors like Tiger Global pulled back from the digital asset space. That being said, other asset managers maintain sizeable positions within digital asset public equities. For example, while Cathie Wood's ARK Invest sold +1.4mm shares of Coinbase in Jul-22, the fund still maintains $600mm and $31mm positions in Coinbase and Silvergate, respectively. On the contrasting side, quantitative hedge fund Renaissance Technologies ranks 8th at $391mm spread across $285mm, $88mm and $18mm positions in Coinbase, MicroStrategy and Marathon. While fundamental long-short equity funds take long and short positions to hedge their risk, Renaissance relies on mathematical models, generating returns +71.8% annualized return over 20 years from 1994 through mid-2014.