The report highlights that investment in the cryptocurrency/digital assets space, not always an alluring one for private equity industry, is continuing to generate a level of interest.

The family office of Arthur Hayes, a controversial cryptocurrency figure who co-founded the exchange BitMEX, is seeking at least $250 million for a debut private equity fund targeting medium-sized crypto firms, Bloomberg reported October 17.

The fund plans to invest $40 million to $75 million per deal to acquire as many as six companies, Maelstrom co-founder and managing partner Akshat Vaidya said in an interview with the news and information service. 

The focus will be on service providers including those offering trading infrastructure and analytics platforms, Vaidya was quoted as saying. 

Vaidya was also quoted saying that he expects interest from investors “that want exposure to the high-cash flow, high-growth crypto sector but lack the capabilities in-house to do this themselves.”

Vaidya, who will run the fund alongside Hayes and newly-hired partner Adam Schlegel, has plans to expand the team. 

Hayes is a controversial figure. On March 27, US President Donald Trump pardoned Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, the three co-founders of BitMEX, once the largest platform for trading crypto derivatives, according to the US Department of Justice website. The trio, who were charged in 2020 with violating the Bank Secrecy Act, pleaded guilty in 2022. They each agreed to forfeit $10 million and were sentenced to probation (Reuters, Bloomberg, others). 

According to the Maelstrom website, it is “building a long-term portfolio across venture, liquid, private equity, and public markets, focused on infrastructure companies and assets that will form the foundation of the next wave of trustless decentralization.”

“We back high-conviction opportunities ranging from early-stage equity and token investments to private and public market positions, bringing to each cap table the experience, relationships, and resources of having built one of the industry’s first profitable unicorns from the ground up,” it says.