Steve Cohen has reportedly backed a crypto hedge fund
- Steve Cohen backs crypto hedge fund Autonomous Partners through Cohen Private Ventures.
- Cohen's backing comes amid growing interest from mainstream investors in crypto assets.
Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen has invested in the crypto craze, according to Fortune.
Fortune reported on Thursday that Cohen has invested in crypto asset hedge fund Autonomous Partners through his vehicle Cohen Private Ventures. Autonomous, which was founded last year, has also raised money from Union Square Ventures and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
It is not known how much Cohen has invested in the fund but the backing coming amid growing signs of interest from institutional and more mainstream investors in crypto assets.
There are over 250 crypto-only hedge funds, with the bulk launched over the last 18 months. These give more traditional investors access to the fast-growing, but high-risk, crypto sector. Financial technology research house Autonomous Next estimates that these funds have raised as much as $5 billion between them.
Cohen made his estimated $11 billion fortune running SAC Capital, one of Wall Street's most feted hedge funds in the 2000s before it was shut down by the SEC amid an insider trading probe. SAC Capital pleaded guilty to insider trading in the US in 2013 and paid a $1.3 billion fine. Cohen never admitted personal blame but was banned from supervising funds for two years. That ban expired earlier this year.
Cohen has been focusing on his personal hedge fund, Point72, in the interim but is in the process of opening up the fund to outside capital now that his ban has expired. Last week it emerged that Britain's financial regulator had blocked Cohen from taking external investor money in the UK.