Coinbase’s First Employee is Leaving to Start His Own Hedge Fund

Olaf Carlson-Wee, the first employee at venture-backed bitcoin exchange Coinbase, has departed as head of risk and product manager to focus on a new digital currency hedge fund, dubbed Polychain Capital.
While the firm does not yet have investors or even its own website, Carlson-Wee believes that his vision for Polychain Capital will be enough to turn it into one that generates significant returns for those who invest, given that the fund plans to invest solely in cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based tokens.
In interview, Carlson-Wee asserted that, owing to the poor returns shown by VCs so far in the industry, investors are better off investing in bitcoin, ethereum, steem, as well as projects like The DAO.
Carlson-Wee told CoinDesk:
“Most of the hackers I know have made 50x returns and they’re not VCs. I think we’re entering a new model, where people who will be rewarded are the token holders themselves. You’re supporting the protocol, not a company.”
That said, Carlson-Wee believes he’s identified three reasons why large investors aren’t already active in digital currency markets.

This post was published at Coin Desk on July 28, 2016.