Crypto Hedge Funds Notch Best Average Returns Focusing on Directional and Quantitative Strategies

Crypto hedge funds had a stellar 2024, outperforming Bitcoin and notching the best average gains among hedge funds, as institutional interest in digital assets surged.

But beating Bitcoin’s 40% performance was challenging for these funds, especially given the volatility in crypto markets, according to some hedge fund managers.

“It’s really hard to time these things,” said David Jeong, CEO of Tread.fi, an algorithmic crypto trading platform for institutional traders. “In the hedge fund world, drawdowns are quite sensitive and so you can’t just always be fully exposed long. And investors have alternative pathways to get exposure to crypto.”

Still, hedge funds focusing on directional and quantitative strategies in the digital-asset industry notched the best average performance last year, based on data from VisionTrack. The VisionTrack Quant Directional Index gained 53.7%, while the VisionTrack Fundamental Index grew 40.4% in the same period. The VisionTrack Market Neutral Index added about 18.5%.

Galaxy Digital’s own Alpha Liquid Fund was up 76.6% in 2024, according to a person familiar with the performance. A representative of Galaxy declined to comment about the returns because the information was not public.

David Tawil’s ProChain Master Fund, a multi-strategy crypto vehicle he launched in 2018, added roughly 70% last year – after having surged 80% in 2023 – thanks to sizable positions in bigger tokens including Bitcoin.

“We’re trying to get the best risk-adjusted returns and, frankly, in this past year, we clearly came out on top because those large-cap tokens mightily beat the crypto market overall,” said Tawil. “So if you owned altcoins, you did not perform as well.”

Fundamental research and macro funds, which have high conviction in crypto assets based on fundamental research in the token or the blockchain, in general performed well. San Francisco-based Reflexive Capital, which runs a long-biased fundamental crypto hedge fund, was up 106% in net returns in 2024, according to a person familiar with the performance. Kalk declined to comment about his fund’s performance.

The Tephra Digital Asset Fund LP, run by former Wall Street veterans Ryan Price and Raghav Chopra, rose about 100% in gross returns at the end of December, compared to 41% in the year before, according to the fund’s December letter to investors dated Jan. 6, which was viewed by Bloomberg News. Price and Chopra declined to comment about their fund’s performance.