As the Blockchain and Crypto world gathers pace, vehicles to allow for the creation, promotion and management of crypto investment funds are growing. The Iconomi Digital Assets Management Platform enables users to invest and manage various digital assets. Meanwhile, Melonport is building a blockchain protocol for digital asset management, initially built on the Ethereum platform. This is basically a framework for blockchain-enabled hedge funds.
Right now, most tokenized investment vehicles are either fully crypto-oriented or pegged to a tradable asset, like the U.S. dollar or gold. But creating access to fiat investment opportunities would diversify the income sources while at the same time retaining all the benefits of the crypto universe, such as transparency. Additionally, investors would get a higher return, because tokenized funds are much more cost-efficient than traditional ones.
Now, Blackmoon Financial Group, a financial technology and investment management company, has launched Blackmoon Crypto (BMC), a blockchain-based platform for — guess what — tokenized investment funds. BMC claims it has found a way to make crypto investments legal and secure, which would be significant, given the recent SEC decision to classify some tokens as securities.
The move might not be considered so worthy of note, were it not for the fact that these are not a bunch of pie-in-the-sky, fly-by-night crypto cowboys. For one, the company has attracted $3.5 million in venture capital investment from Target Global, AN&N Investments, Flint Capital, and several other private investors. And right now, Blackmoon’s lending marketplace is operating in 9 countries and exceeds $100M in deals volume, while reaching $13M in monthly volumes.
Last Friday it passed a $10M pre-ICO threshold with more than 2500 paid accounts. As a result, BMC closed its pre-sale after the first 2 weeks, indicating a strong public interest in the project and the forthcoming ICO. It’s ICO is now slated for September 12th.
The idea is to offer a new standard for tokenized investment vehicles that will bridge the gap between fiat and crypto universes by creating a way for asset managers to create and manage legally compliant tokenized funds. This would include everything from technology and infrastructure to legal framework and corporate structuring. Eventually any experienced and approved investment manager would be able to create a fund based on Blackmoon Crypto’s platform. (The platform and its tokens are based on Ethereum and also the Waves blockchain).
The company is led by entrepreneurs and investors Oleg Seydak and Ilya Perekopsky (former VP and COO of VK, the Facebook clone previously founder buy Pavel Durov, who went on to create Telegram).
In addition, two well-known players in asset management are supporting the ICO. The first is Nicolas Tranter – founding director of Bibbsworth, which advises institutional asset managers in the UK and Europe, and is based in London. The other is John Hyman – partner at Ondra Partners, a leading corporate finance advisory boutique.
“Setting up the proper investment structure is a costly endeavour. Not all tokenized funds do this, which leads to greater regulatory risk for investors,” says Seydak. He thinks there needs to be an industry standard for setting up tokenized investment vehicles that would then be able to attract investments from private individuals and institutional investors of any kind. “That’s what the Blackmoon Crypto platform does; it pays attention to regulatory risk and bridges the gap between the fiat and crypto worlds.”
“Tokenized funds are more cost-efficient thanks to lower infrastructure and setup costs,” Sergey Vasin, Chief Investment Officer of Blackmoon. “This economy is transmitted to investors in the form of higher net return. The cherry on top is that, fund tokens are also immediately tradable.”