London-based hedge fund manager Nickel Asset Management has officially launched its second cryptocurrency offering, Nickel Digital Gold Institutional fund, which brings multi-year experience from traditional finance to leverage opportunities in virtual assets.
Fidelity Digital Assets, the cryptocurrency arm of Boston-based Fidelity Investments, is offering custody services for the new fund, with Nickel becoming Fidelity’s first European partner in the digital assets space.
The new fund is also supported by a bespoke Walled Garden solution developed by digital assets prime brokerage Copper.
Nickel Digital Gold Institutional Fund aims to resolve the existing complexities in Bitcoin index-tracking crypto products. It claims to offer competitive terms, including management fees of 0.5 percent, daily Liquidity , and subscriptions and redemption at NAV, with no premia or discounts to fair market value.
Nickel also uses proprietary execution algorithms to minimize trading slippage, and it already has built its own automated trading systems.
“We believe it is only a matter of time until digital assets become part of regular portfolio allocation for forward-looking institutional investors,” said Anatoly Crachilov, CEO of Nickel in London. “Whilst lack of transparent and cost-efficient access held back allocators’ diversification efforts into this asset class amongst institutional investors so far, we are on a mission to challenge the status quo. We have built an institutional-quality gateway to this new asset class,” he added.
Digital assets become part of institutional portfolio
The UK asset manager has previously launched an actively managed crypto investment fund that is geared towards experienced investors who are looking to capitalize on Volatility in the cryptocurrency markets.
Dubbed ‘Nickel Arbitrage Fund,’ the vehicle has raised $50 million from funds and family offices in the UK, Europe, North America, and Singapore.
Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) has established a new entity to serve European institutions investing in digital assets. Fidelity’s cryptocurrency unit only serves institutional investors such as hedge funds, family offices, and market intermediaries.
The new company already features institutional-grade, crypto linked services, including custody offerings to safeguard holdings and execution services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
On a related note, Fidelity has named former managing director at Barclays Chris Tyrer to lead the European business. Tyrer was tasked with developing the investment bank’s digital assets project and was previously its head of commodities trading.
