AKJ Crypto, a full-service platform for crypto hedge funds, is bringing institution-grade services and support to the world of digital asset management.
The firm has been onboarding the first wave of funds onto the platform and has seen the strong interest as an indication of the fundamental market opportunity for crypto. As far as the recent downturn in crypto assets is concerned, Neal Mitra (pictured), AKJ Crypto CEO sees this as a sign of growing maturity in the sector.
“The initial enthusiasm for digital assets was driven at the retail level and had outpaced the development of the market itself. But we are now seeing a more rationalised approach, with the market more closely tracking the increasing participation of sophisticated players who bring operational know-how, prior track records of success, and complementary expertise. We’ve moved past the early days of believing that this industry had to be built entirely from scratch. Firms like us bring a wide array of expertise that is directly applicable to crypto,” says Mitra.
Maturation through regulation
With growing sophistication comes the need for regulation. “Some of the early retail level crypto evangelists had actually seen the lack of regulation as a core benefit of the ‘crypto mission’. But this is not how a new market opportunity develops itself for long-term survival,” he continues.
Mitra believes that, “while progress on regulation has been slower than crypto operators may like, this comes out of necessity as the complexities behind regulating a new opportunity and understanding where the risks are in an extremely dynamic and fast-moving market cannot be underestimated,” he says.
“AKJ Crypto strives to be a driving force behind the regulation of the crypto market. This is borne of our nearly 25-year history as a regulated business in the traditional financial services space.”
Redefining the business enterprise through the AKJ Token
The AKJ Crypto platform is fuelled by its own token, the AKJ Token, which allows value from the enterprise to be distributed to various stakeholders.
“The token serves as the currency of the activity that takes place,” Mitra says. “Owners of the token benefit as any value generated within the platform is shared with the token holders.”
AKJ Token investors receive AKJ tokens, providing them with a share of net revenues from transaction fees generated on the crypto hedge fund platform, fees generated from the management and performance of participating funds (through the capital allocation activities of an in-house fund of funds), and appreciation in the value of the token itself.
“We go one step beyond capital introduction, as our fund of funds vehicle represents a captive source of capital that will be allocated, on a merit basis, to fund managers on our platform,” Mitra explains.
Getting off zero – the time is now
“The focus and opportunity for institutional and professional investors right now has to be ‘getting off zero,’ since the long-term viability of this sector just can’t be ignored at this point. For a professional investor to not have any allocation to crypto at all is not only inadvisable but arguably irresponsible,” says Mitra.
AKJ Crypto is part of AK Jensen Group, a company owned by shareholders with over USD18 billion in assets under management and clients in 35 countries around the world. “The historical context to what we are now doing in crypto is an extension of our turnkey solutions for traditional hedge fund managers, where we have had great success over the past several years. In now providing the same suite of services and support for digital assets, we continue to enable fund managers to focus on what they do best,” concludes Mitra.
