The Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund that Operates Out of a Dorm Room
Trace Capital is not your average cryptocurrency hedge fund.
The venture, which currently manages approximately $300,000 for a small group of around 15 investors, uses an algorithm to predict the price movements of large-cap cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. The algorithm has proved moderately successful, and Trace Capital’s founders have already received buyout offers.
But Leo Tulchin and his partner, whose first name is Brandon and prefers not to reveal his last name, say that they aren’t selling anytime soon — at least not until they graduate from college, that is.
The two partners are undergraduate students at New York University (NYU) and each is now majoring in finance, a field far removed from their original spheres of neuroscience and media.
“We really believe in this thing,” Tulchin told the New York Post in an interview. “Brandon and I are working together to incorporate into a cryptocurrency hedge fund. For now, we’re not taking a piece of things but just helping out friends and family.”
Konig Chen, a 22-year-old hospitality and leisure management major, is one of those clients. He first began entrusting his assets to Trace Capital in Feb. 2017, ultimately sinking $85,000 into the venture throughout the summer.
By the end of the year — even after the market correction — the value of Chen’s investment had grown by approximately $300,000, enough for him to pay off his student loans — with cash — and be left with a tidy profit for single-year investment.
Chen, though, isn’t quite sure that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance. Nevertheless, he plans to remain invested with Trace Capital in the near-term, trusting that this dorm room-based cryptocurrency hedge fund can help him achieve his life’s goal: purchase and operate his own resort.
“The trend is that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will go up for now, but I don’t plan to be around when it goes down,” he said. “After making all this money I can’t see myself being the manager of a hotel. My plan is to cash out and buy a resort property.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
