In The News - HedgeWeek - "ADCF - Best Niche Hedge Fund"
ADCF won Best Niche Hedge Fund at the HedgeWeek 2018 Awards
In Monaco back in 2013 – when bitcoin was priced at USD100 – Alistair Milne, an Internet entrepreneur since 1996, approached Lee Robinson with the idea to launch an innovative digital currency hedge fund. What resulted, in May 2014, was the Altana Digital Currency Fund (ADCF), the first actively managed, multi-asset cryptocurrency fund of its kind in Europe.
In 2017 ADCF returned a phenomenal 1496 per cent (after fees). Since inception it has returned over 2500 per cent, outperforming a passive investment in Bitcoin every year.
ADCF enables investors to gain actively managed exposure to Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The fund trades up to 50 per cent of its NAV and aims to take advantage of volatility and increase investor returns, rather than passively benchmark. It is able to achieve this by going long as well as short, hedging with puts.
“As one of the earliest to spot the huge opportunity, we were very well placed to capitalise, having already spent several years acquiring the necessary knowledge, experience and contacts. We are proud to have outperformed Bitcoin in such an incredible year.”
A minimum of 60 per cent of ADCF’s cryptocurrencies are held in secure offline wallets, aka “cold storage”, as opposed to leaving them in custody with counterparties such as Bitcoin exchanges. Using multiple secure physical locations dramatically reduces the risk of loss.
Asked to explain what makes ADCF such a compelling investment proposition, Milne replies: “In an environment where everyone is now talking about Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc, we are one of a small number of truly experienced crypto-asset managers.
“You can count how many funds have experienced a crypto bear market on one hand. We offer investors peace of mind that we know what we are doing ... and have our own capital at risk alongside theirs.”
With respect to volatility, Milne says that the team ensures that it warns all of its investors that “this is a high-risk investment and to not be over exposed”.
“We have written to our investors on multiple occasions advising them when we are taking profits ourselves, encouraging prudence. We last did this when Bitcoin broke above USD19,500.”
As to where ADCF should fit within their wider portfolio, Milne states: “We believe it should be seen as both a hedge against systemic risk, as well as a spread-bet on the future of blockchain and cryptocurrencies as a new technology and asset class.”
Robinson established Altana Wealth in 2009 to manage his personal wealth. Prior to this, Robinson co-founded Trafalgar Asset Managers where he was CIO of Trafalgar Catalyst Fund and Trafalgar Special Situations Fund.
Neil Panchen joined as CTO in 2011 to build Altana’s IT infrastructure. Panchen held senior IT positions at Deutsche Bank, most notably as Global Head of Commodities IT and Global Head of FX IT. Panchen built the systematic trading algorithms for digital currency trading and is himself the portfolio manager for Altana Cryptocurrency Trade Finance (ACTF) that offers trade finance to cryptocurrency traders.
On winning the award, Milne concludes: “We once wrote to our investors ‘we prefer to be early than late’. When we setup the fund we knew Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies had incredible potential that was largely overlooked. It is very rewarding to have our foresight independently recognised.”
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