Cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera Capital is close to completing funding for its third venture fund, already raising $160 million, the company announced in a blog post оn March 27.
Pantera, which debuted its first fund in 2013, has since risen to become a conspicuous player in the crypto startup industry. Its latest project, dubbed Venture Fund III, has a fundraising target of $175 million.
“We project making a total of 35 investments, with an average deal size of $3.5 million, and an 11% target average equity stake,” the blog post revealed.
Activity among entities building out the cryptocurrency-related ecosystem has remained brisk despite the ongoing market downturn.
To date, Pantera says, Venture Fund III has already injected $38 million of capital in 11 portfolio companies, leading five of those rounds itself.
At present, infrastructure-related firms make up the majority of recipients at just over 35 percent, followed by exchanges at just under 30 percent.
Pantera invested in forthcoming institutional trading platform Bakkt in the fund’s first investment, the blog post notes. Bakkt’s regulatory discussions are continue prior to its long-awaited debut offering of physically settled Bitcoin futures.
Accompanying the fund news was a Bitcoin (BTC) prediction: continuing a popular train of thought in the crypto industry, Pantera suggested the 2020 Bitcoin block reward halving would have a positive impact on prices.
Noting the pattern of previous block reward events, the company suggested that a pivotal point in Bitcoin’s bear market could occur around June this year.
“Inflection points occurred 376 and 320 days prior to the 2012 and 2016 ‘halvings’, respectively. Taking their average of 348 days could indicate a bottom on June 10, 2019,” it summarized.
