ConsenSys Capital Co-Founder Departs to Bring Wall Street Money to Ethereum

ConsenSys Capital co-founder Andrew Keys will be the newest managing partner at DARMA Capital, a registered crypto-focused investment fund.

DARMA Capital is a CFTC-regulated firm, as well as a member of the National Futures Association, with $100 million in assets under management for its Ether Optimized Long fund, Keys said in a blog post.

The idea behind the ether long fund is it will accumulate more ether as time goes on, thereby generating a return for the fund's investors.

Keys told CoinDesk that his goal is to accumulate 1 percent of the fund's total per month, minus fees.

While DARMA is starting with an ether long fund, the firm plans to launch a bitcoin long fund in the coming months, with a third fund based on filecoin sometime next year.

While Keys has transitioned to working full-time at DARMA, he will remain an advisor to ConsenSys, he said.

DARMA will be utilizing ConsenSys software, and working closely with the ethereum startup incubator.

ConsenSys is focused more on the technology side of the crypto world than the financial side, but Keys said it is important to build some regulated funds in the space.

"I think the investment stage, if you look at the PwC blockchain hedge fund report, over 70 percent of them have less than $10 million assets under management, half of them don't use a custodian and it's very immature. We have $100 [million] AUM, we have one of the best custodians in Opus, we have KPMG as an auditor."

At present, only accredited investors, family offices and institutions can participate in the fund.