Magic money on the internet is a world of highs and lows. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can rocket to records before dropping more than 10% in just hours. It’s an investment not for the faint of heart, but for early movers, crypto can reap outsized gains.
Pure Crypto, a fund of funds headquartered outside Chicago, isn’t like longtime Silicon Valley venture capital investor Pantera Capital—which famously launched the first Bitcoin fund in the U.S. in 2013 and now manages more than $4 billion. But Pure Crypto’s first fund, launched in 2018, has appreciated almost 1,000% to be worth around $60 million as of the end of 2024, say founder Jeremy Boynton and managing partner Zachary Lindquist.
Now, Boynton and Lindquist, who manage about $100 million in Pure Crypto, are planning to raise their fourth fund for what they predict will be crypto’s last boom. “We think this is maybe the last hurrah in the venture capital-esque nature of crypto returns,” Boynton told me.
Boynton and Lindquist aren’t predicting a crypto apocalypse. Instead, they believe that this is their last chance to get big returns on crypto investments before the industry gets boring—or becomes so mainstream that yearly returns from crypto become closer to buying into the Nasdaq rather than buying up Bitcoin in the early 2010s.
They may be right. President Donald Trump recently signed into law a bill that regulates stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies tied to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. The Senate is considering another piece of legislation, already passed in the House, that would more broadly define which financial agencies should regulate which portions of the crypto market. And Fortune 500 companies like Meta and Apple are exploring how to add stablecoins to their businesses.
Family office to crypto fund
In a sign of how frothy the crypto markets are, Boynton and Lindquist are confident they can raise tens of millions of dollars on the strength of their track record—even though they haven’t yet taken in a single investment for their fourth foray into digital assets. “We will start taking our first checks certainly before the end of the year,” Boynton said.
Boynton is also the founder of Laureate Wealth Management, which manages the finances of 19 family offices in the U.S., with net worths ranging between $10 million and $50 million, he said. In 2018, as Boynton witnessed a prior crypto boom, he decided to get into the game and hired Lindquist, a fresh out–of-college physics major who wanted to get into crypto.
Boynton raised money from the families who are clients of his wealth management firm, and the two have developed a strategy that relies on allocating capital to just a few highly vetted crypto funds. Pure Crypto currently gives money to eight firms, but Multicoin seems core to the allocator’s strategy. “We’ve fired other managers,” he said. “You know, feed the strength, starve the weakness.”
See you next week,
Ben Weiss
X: @bdanweiss
Email: benjamin.weiss@fortune.com
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Fortune AIQ
Fortune recently unveiled a new ongoing series, Fortune AIQ, dedicated to navigating AI’s real-world impact. Our latest collection of stories explores how businesses across virtually every industry are putting AI to work—and how their particular field is changing as a result.
- How Walmart, Amazon, and other retail giants are using AI to reinvent the supply chain—from warehouse to checkout. Read more
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- How a bulldozer, crane, and excavator rental company is using AI to save 3,000 hours per week. Read more
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VENTURE DEALS
– april, a New York City-based embedded, AI tax platform, raised $38 million in Series B funding. QED Investors led the round and was joined by Nyca Partners and Team8.
– 4screen, a Munich, Germany-based company that connects drivers with businesses through native car screens, raised $21 million in Series B funding. Bosch Ventures led the round and was joined by NewRoad Capital Partners, Bayern Kapital.
– Cambridge Terahertz, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of AI technology designed to scan for threat detection, raised $12 million in seed funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by Amazon, Tishman Speyer, Plug and Play, Good Growth Capital, Stata Capital, and others.
– Dash Bio, a Boston, Mass.-based bioanalysis company, raised $11 million in funding. The Aligned Fund led the round and was joined by Freestyle Capital, Cybernetix Ventures, Swift Ventures, LifeX Ventures, Drive Capital, and others.
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– IdentifAI, a Milan, Italy-based AI-powered platform designed to detect AI generated or manipulated content, raised €5 million ($5.9 million) in funding. United Ventures led the round.
– Maro, a New York City-based cognitive security platform designed to control human risk, raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Downing Capital Group.
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PRIVATE EQUITY
– Ardian acquired a majority stake in Horizon Home Care Group AG (Dovida), a Rheinfelden, Switzerland-provider of non-medical home care services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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IPOS
– Accelerant Holdings, an Atlanta, Ga.-based platform that connects insurance underwriters with risk capital providers, raised $724 million in an offering of 34.5 million shares priced at $21 on the New York Stock Exchange.
– Shoulder Innovations, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based implant provider for shoulder arthroplasty, announced plans to raise $100 million in an offering of 5 million shares priced between $19 and $21 on the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. Venture Partners, Coöperatieve Gilde Healthcare, Lightstone Ventures, cultivate(MD), Arboretum Ventures, and FMR back the company.
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