Point72’s Steve Cohen Exits Investment in Crypto Firm Radkl

(Bloomberg) -- Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen exited his investment in cryptocurrency trading startup Radkl, according to a spokesperson for the digital-asset company.

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The quantitative crypto trading firm, which was formed last year by New York Stock Exchange market maker GTS, has already lost at least four managing directors this year, including Jim Greco, Allan Erskine, Jason Bell and Beatrice O’Carroll. On Radkl’s website, only five employees are listed including O’Carroll, who confirmed with Bloomberg in a LinkedIn message that she has left the company.

“Radkl remains extremely well capitalized with its current investors and continues to grow rapidly,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. A representative for Cohen’s hedge fund, Point72 Asset Management, declined to comment.

Radkl made news last September for having snagged the support of Cohen, a Wall Street titan who also owns the New York Mets baseball team. His involvement was seen as a sign of the traditional finance world’s growing interest in and acceptance of the industry. Then, prices were rising toward records; this year, a slump in digital assets and series of crises has left investors with losses and, for some, dimmed crypto’s allure.

Read more: DeFi Trader at Steve Cohen-Backed Firm Wrote Kardashians’ Song

Radkl wasn’t Cohen’s only crypto investment. Cohen’s family office -- Cohen Private Ventures -- also took part in a funding round last year for nonfungible-token firm Recur, while Point72 Ventures led a financing round earlier in 2021 for crypto-analytics firm Messari Inc.

This year in June, Point72 hired Elie Galam as head of crypto for Cohen’s centralized quant business at Cubist Systematic Strategies.

(Updates with other departures in second paragraph.)

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