blockworks.co
Private equity firm 10T Holdings is getting set to launch a third fund focused on digital assets companies, which would bring the company’s assets under management to more than $1 billion.
The firm currently manages about $800 million in assets between the 10T Fund and the 10T DAE Expansion Fund. The new fund, called the 10T DAE Fund 3.0 in a Tuesday regulatory filing, is expected to be $500 million.
The newest fund plans come as the digital assets space has seen an increasing number of use cases and sectors in recent months.
10T’s existing two private equity funds invest in three segments within the crypto ecosystem: digital asset ecosystem gateways, blockchain infrastructure and what the firm considers to be next-generation financial services.
Tapiero noted that the firm’s focus on investments in mid- to late-stage private businesses in the digital assets ecosystem makes 10T’s existing funds unique to many other offerings. The 10T Fund and the 10T DAE Expansion Fund do not invest in cryptocurrencies, venture projects or early-stage protocols, he explained.
When 10T was founded last year, there were a dozen or so crypto companies with a market capitalization of $1 billion or more, Tapiero said. Today, there are about 70, he noted.
“The demand for investing in this part of the capital stack — B and C rounds, and later of some of these larger companies — has been so large,” the CEO told Blockworks.
The 14 companies the first two 10T funds have invested in to date are: Kraken, eToro, Huobi, Mercado Bitcoin, Gemini, Bitfury, Ledger, Helium, Figment, Prime Trust, Deribit, Figure, Animoca Brands and Ledn.
“We think these companies are companies that three, four, five or six years from now will be in the S&P 500,” Tapiero said. “These are the established companies that are in the pole position in the space.”
Tapiero estimated during Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in September that the crypto market value, which is currently at about $2.5 trillion, could hit $20 trillion within five years. He said bitcoin reaching a price of $500,000 within that span is “very reasonable.”
Bitcoin’s price was roughly $51,200, as of Noon ET, according to CoinGecko.