Galaxy Digital Bitcoin Funds Raise $104M as Institutional Cash Flows In

Galaxy Digital's bitcoin funds raised $104 million in their first year, mostly from wealthy investors eager to benefit from the surging cryptocurrency.

As reported in two Form D filings, Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP raised $55.1 million while its smaller sibling, Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP, raised $3.6 million. Both funds launched last November when Mike Novogratz first trained his crypto investments firm's sights on the bitcoin fund space.

A third fund called Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund, Ltd, reported raising $45 million from 13 investors Wednesday, bringing the institutional total to $100.1 million, according to Galaxy Digital spokesperson Eva Casanova.

The institutional fund in particular appears to capture high-rollers' spiking interest in bitcoin. With a minimum investment of $250,000, the $55 million fund attracted 33 investors for an average allocation of $1.66 million.

For the Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP, 56 investors pitched in at least $25,000 each for the full $3.6 million raise.

Funds have long appealed to investors who seek exposure to bitcoin's price without having to deal with custody, trade or execution issues themselves. Pantera Capital launched one of the first such vehicles in 2013; it now has north of $135 million in sales.

UPDATE (12/1/20 10:00pm EST): This story has been updated to reflect the full raise amount.