Renaissance Technologies is considering investing in CME Group's (NASDAQ: CME) cash-settled Bitcoin (BTC) futures in its legendary Medallion fund, which has posted an average 66% annual return since 1988. Recent regulatory filings show Renaissance's market-crushing Medallion fund is potentially entering Bitcoin futures. According to a March 30 Form ADV investors brochure, the quantitative firm has "permitted" the Medallion fund to enter the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's cash-settled Bitcoin futures market. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the $10 billion Medallion fund had returned 24 percent after fees year-to-date through April 14, trouncing market indices. Medallion's step into a financial instrument widely considered to be a proxy for institutional interest in Bitcoin could boost industry adoption.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Crypto startup Purse announced it will shut down after 6 years of continuous operation, according to an email the firm sent to customers on Thursday. Purse support manager Eduardo Gómez tweeted: "It was a business decision, nothing funky going on," adding Purse will disclose more information in a blog post. Purse offered customers discounts of up to 5% at Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) website by connecting Amazon gift card holders and cryptocurrency owners. Users could buy gift cards at discounted rates using Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Purse was once an active developer in the BTC community, proposing a third scaling solution called "extension blocks" during the block size civil war that resulted in the BCH hard fork. Purse will continue to operate services until June 26, but new user registrations ceased already.
Digital transfer agent Vertalo, alternative trading system tZERO, and consulting firm Advantage Blockchain are partnering to tokenize the portfolio of $300 million real estate properties owned by a boutique firm, the firms told CoinDesk. The portfolio is owned by Pennsylvania-based Real Estate Capital Management, and Advantage plans to tokenize the portfolio in phases, starting with $90 million of office and hospitality real estate over the next three months, according to the firm's president Alec Beckman. Through Vertalo, Advantage will use the Tezos (XTZ) blockchain to tokenize the real estate. Vertalo CEO Dave Hendricks noted that though past efforts to tokenize real estate have failed because of low investor interest, Vertalo aims to help real estate managers who are looking to boost back-office efficiency and liquidity.
Crypto prices rose slightly again this week to $208 billion. For the majors, Tezos, Ethereum (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB) posted outsized double-digit gains, while Bitcoin Cash slipped. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Insolar (XNS), down 13%, Swipe (SXP), down 10%, and MonaCoin (MONA), down 4.3%. The biggest gainers were Komodo (KMD), up 45%, Hyperion (HYN), up 41%, and Numeraire (NMR), up 30%. Next week traders will see if crypto can stay above the key $200 billion level through volatility or even prepare for another leg upward.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.