London-based Nickel Digital Asset Management, Europe’s leading regulated and award-winning digital assets hedge fund manager, has stepped up its role as an allocator to globally located trading teams (pods) as it looks to enhance investor returns
The multi-manager portfolio consists of pods (usually a team of one to two portfolio managers supported by research analysts) running separate investment strategies within a larger platform, while Nickel’s investment team oversees manager selection, continuous portfolio risk management, and dynamic capital allocations across individual pods. The model aims to create a diversified portfolio of uncorrelated, risk-adjusted returns by identifying and funding unique sources of alpha while maintaining highly granular control over portfolio risks.
Nickel Digital has allocated a cumulative $510m in capital to trading pods across 23 countries and 37 cities as part of its global expansion strategy. The number of pods has exceeded 74 by 1 September, 2025, an increase of 110% since the beginning of the year.
As Nickel’s pods are focused on high-to-mid frequency strategies with high velocity of capital, the total trading volume of Nickel’s pods exceeded $100bn over the last 12 months.
Nickel’s ability to consolidate bright quant traders under a single fund umbrella with tight risk management framework allowed its Diversified Alpha Fund to deliver record net returns of 34.9% last year with volatility of just 5%, according to data (1) from BarclayHedge. Following a significant inflow of capital, the fund soft closed earlier this year.
Diversification features of a multi-manager fund are designed to deliver consistent, low volatility returns regardless of broader market moves, making it attractive to institutional investors seeking exposure to digital assets with downside protection.
The largest single allocation of Diversified Alpha is $50m, highlighting Nickel’s ability to provide funding to well performing managers.
Nickel is also focused on efficiency of capital allocation. While none of the pods is getting full allocation from day one, the timing to test allocation (a mandatory stage to gain statistical confidence in pods’ investment thesis) is measured in days, not months.
Strategies include HF Market Making, Arbitrage, Funding Rate/ Future Basis, Relative Value and Statistical Arbitrage, as well as Short-Term Trend Following.
