Reality Shares has rebranded as Blockforce Capital following the addition of a cryptocurrency investment platform, Onramp, and a blockchain-focused hedge fund unit to its existing ETF business.
Leading the firm’s expansion is a diverse set of professionals with experience in finance, theoretical physics and computational astrophysics, as well as an advisory board armed with highly regarded leaders in the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets. The board’s collective expertise was instrumental in Reality Shares’ debut of the world’s first blockchain ecosystem ETF and first China-specific blockchain ETF. Reality Shares, which originally launched in 2012, also offers a family of dividend growth ETFs.
“Since inception, our firm has pushed the innovative envelope of the ETF business to offer investors access to some of the most dynamic areas of the market,” says Eric Ervin, CEO of Blockforce Capital. “That same disruptive spirit has inspired an unyielding determination to find opportunity in digital assets, and to not only expand, but reimagine our firm vision to offer investors streamlined access across the risk spectrum – from ETFs to cryptocurrency portfolios to hedge funds.”
Earlier this year, Ervin’s team established its first venture fund to make initial investments in opportunistic, private market deals in the blockchain arena. This fund, to be renamed Blockforce Fund One LP, was one of the few funds granted access to one of the largest blockchain venture investments this year. A second venture fund, Blockforce Fund II Multi-Strategy, will be built to deliver alpha utilising the firm’s proprietary Alpha Predator system. That fund will focus on three key areas: venture investments, exchange arbitrage and bi-directional trading. Blockforce has retained Stonegate Global Fund Services, a leader in global blockchain technology and cryptocurrency fund structuring, for hedge fund formation and administration. Blockforce Capital’s Private Funds arm is designed exclusively for accredited and institutional investors and will open for outside investment in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Lastly, Blockforce Capital is developing Onramp, a cutting-edge platform that will offer investors simplified access to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. It will be the first mobile app to offer one-tap investing in a portfolio of cryptocurrencies, the ability to automatically grow investments with purchase round-ups and a wide array of thematic investment baskets for specific blockchain sectors. A planned enterprise version of Onramp will also allow institutional partners to offer a turnkey cryptocurrency investment option to their existing customers. Onramp is currently in its incubation phase, and set to launch this fall.
“As a blockchain and cryptocurrency leader, creating Blockforce Capital was a natural progression for us,” says Ervin. “Distributed ledger technology has the potential to rival the impact of the internet by affecting everything from massive business transactions to everyday life. Our job is to help investors capitalise on the diverse set of opportunities presented by blockchain and cryptocurrency, and our new positioning as Blockforce Capital enables us to do just that.”
