LedgerPrime, a quantitative and systematic digital assets hedge fund acquired by Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-defunct FTX in 2021, has relaunched as MNNC Group, a Cayman Islands-registered multi-strategy hedge fund, according to a report by Bloomberg.
According to the report, the fund has raised an undisclosed amount of money from backers including those who originally invested in the fund’s first incarnation. The report cites Shiliang Tang, a GP and Special Adviser to MNNC Group who was previously LedgerPrime’s CIO, as saying the fundraising was in the “mid-eight-figures”.
The report also cites Laura Vidiella del Blanco, who leads business development and strategy at MNNC Group, as confirming that the firm’s flagship quantitative market neutral strategy fund launched last month and has since gained 4%. MNNC plans to launch a directional fund in March.
MNNC Group’s COO, Ayesha Kiani, was also quoted: “What’s helping us is obviously the track record.
“The other thing obviously worked in our favour is that we weren’t at fault with FTX. We have returned outside capitals in September 2022.”
MNNC Group’s currently has 11 employees, the majority of which have come from LedgerPrime, including Johannes van Zeijts, Chief Technology Officer. The fund’s new CIO is Boris Iyutin, who was previously at high-frequency trading firm Tower Research Capital. Van Zeijts, Iyutin and Tang previously worked together on a proprietary trading desk at Merrill Lynch.
According to MNNC Group, its predecessor, LedgerPrime, managed as much as $400m at its peak, with an annualised return averaged at roughly 40%.
Ledger Holdings, the parent company of LedgerPrime, also owned the crypto futures platform LedgerX, which became FTX US Derivatives.
According to earlier reports by CoinDesk and Seeking Alpha, in September 2022, LedgerPrime started returning all capital as part of its transition to a family office that would operate independently but make investments on behalf of Alameda Research, which was founded by Bankman-Fried.
In the wake of LedgerPrime’s closure due to FTX’s bankruptcy in November 2022, former Portfolio Managers Zaheer Ebtikar and Michael Churchouse launched liquid tokens-focused Split Capital in January.
