Steve Cohen’s Point72 Makes First Crypto Firm Investment, Leads Messari’s $ 21 Million Raise

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Point72 Ventures, the venture capital arm of the hedge fund with $ 22.1 billion under management, takes one of its biggest strides in the crypto market, investing in the startup’s Series A funding cycle of Messari cryptographic data.

Led by DCG and former CoinDesk Ryan Selkis, Messari operates in the crowded crypto data and research market. As part of the increase, the company raised $ 21 million at a post-money valuation close to $ 100 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Other investors include Alameda Capital, Nascent and CMS Holdings.

As for Point72, the deal marks an important moment for the firm, which has been in the headlines in recent months for its crypto journey. As The Block first reported in May, Point72 has been preparing to enter the crypto market for some time, exploring opportunities for its venture capital and hedge fund.

A spokesperson for the company said Point72 is still in the early stages of defining its exact crypto investment strategy. In a podcast, CEO Steven Cohen disclosed his thinking about the market a bit more, saying it had been “completely converted” to crypto, but that it “doesn’t specifically care about bitcoin.”

“The way these markets develop could be a really interesting adjacency to what we’re doing at Point72,” he said. “I don’t miss it.”

The YouTube video in which Cohen made the comments has since been deleted.

As to the rationale behind investing in Messari, Adam Carson, an operational partner of Point72 Ventures, said Messari offers “crypto research and analysis tools” that “more advanced investors need”.

Carson joins Messari’s board of directors with Jeff Clavier, a former Thomson Reuters executive who took part in Messari’s round of funding in 2019.

Selkis plans to bring in new capital quickly with the ambitious goal of recruiting more than 1,000 analysts.

“We will aggressively expand our analysis center (the goal is still to integrate 1,000 analysts) and create governance and community management tools for DAOs,” he said in a post. to The Block, referring to its independent contributor research market. .

2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.

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