Anthony Pompliano sheds more insight into Morgan Creek’s $40 million cryptocurrency venture capital fund

As reported earlier by FX Street, Morgan Creek Digital announced the launch of a $40 million cryptocurrency capital venture fund. Anthony Pompliano, a partner at Morgan Creek Capital, gave more insights into this venture fund via a series of tweets, starting with this one:

“0/The fund we announced today at Morgan Creek Digital was the product of a lot of work. Time for a thread.”

Spending hundreds of hours on educating institutional investors:

“1/ We set out to raise a fund filled with institutional investors. It was obvious this would be an uphill battle. It took hundreds of hours of educating folks on why this was important and worth doing.”

On CIOs of both the public pensions (Fairfax County Employee’s and Fairfax County Police Pension Plans) deserving immense credit:

“2/ The entire team worked hard, but the CIOs at both public pensions deserve much more credit than they will get. They’re forward-thinking, intelligent and courageous. No one wanted to be the first, but they seized the opportunity immediately.”

“3/ The best part is that the CIO of the first public pension to ever invest in crypto is a woman. She is the definition of a trailblazer.”

The institutes other than the public pensions that invested in the fund:

“4/ The headlines will focus on the public pensions, but we also have a hospital system, an university endowment, an insurance company and a private foundation. The smart money is in the game in a big way.”

Equity over liquid assets:

“5/ We chose to focus on investing in the equity of companies because it gave the institutions exposure to the crypto industry, while being less risky than simply buying liquid crypto assets.”

Exposure to Bitcoin:

“6/ The fund, which is backed by the two public pensions, will have small exposure to Bitcoin too. I believe every fund, regardless of strategy or industry, should have direct Bitcoin exposure.”

The portfolio has fourteen investments so far:

“7/ The team has been deploying capital for a while now, the portfolio has 14 investments so far, and we chose to wait to announce the news. Sometimes it is better to share your body of work, rather than your plans.”

A shoutout to Morgan Creek’s digital team:

“8/ The Morgan Creek Digital team was incredible throughout this entire process. @JWilliamsFstmed @MarkYusko @cjking711 They should all be remembered and celebrated as the group that got this done in one of the toughest fundraising environments.” 

The fund is looking for more partners:

“9/ We aren’t done though. The entire team is excited to partner with so many amazing founders already, but we are working to find many, many more. If you think you’re one of them, email us at [email protected]”

Tokenizing the world:

“10/10 I’ve been telling all of you that we’re going to tokenize the world and that the virus is spreading. Today proves that you can speak anything into existence with the right team and enough persistence. Now let’s kick this thing off!”