Algorand to be first partner of former Citi exec’s $1.5bn crypto fund

Matt Zhang – former Head of Structured Products at Citigroup – has revealed that Algorand will deploy the technology underpinning cutting-edge $1.5bn crypto investment fund Hivemind Capital.

The enormous venture is pursuing an ambitious strategy, combining equity investments in crypto firms, digital asset investing, and a first-of-its-kind play-to-earn strategy targeting the rapidly emerging crypto gaming sector.

Algorand has been chosen as the first named partner of the start-up, and will build-out the underlying infrastructure necessary for the fund to deploy its whopping $1.5bn capital in verticals such as blockchain protocols, open internet, metaverses and programmable money.

Matt Zhang, the Founder and Managing Partner at Hivemind – a visionary in his own right; having led major exploration and investment at Citigroup into innovations that could re-shape future debt markets – was enthusiastic in his announcement of the partnership.

“We believe blockchain technology is a paradigm shift, and we are still in the early innings,” he explained.

“Our mission is to provide start-to-finish capital and infrastructure solutions to visionary entrepreneurs and category-defining crypto projects.

“The traditional asset management model is not designed to do this, which is why we are building a tailor made crypto investment platform from the ground up that also offers the infrastructure institutional investors need for risk management, compliance, and security.”

Why Algorand (ALGO)?

ALGO is a strong choice for the venture fund. Algorand was designed by Italian computer scientist Silvio Micali to tackle the major challenge of creating a high speed and highly scalable blockchain without suffering weakened decentralisation.

This will afford the ambitious strategy at the fund, boundless throughput capacity and scalability, which could form an important aspect of future infrastructure requirements. The fund plans to effectively gold farm play-to-earn games and may well engage with data-intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence that Zhang has pioneered in the past.

“We believe that Algorand is the preeminent blockchain protocol that allows institutional and corporate users to connect with the decentralised economy,” added Zhang.

“With the explosive growth of the digital asset space, people tend to forget how early the crypto economy still is. We want to team up with partners who have the patience to build an enduring business.

“We are also in active discussions to form partnerships with a number of other leading layer-1 networks. The goal is to build a multi-chain world to let our investors see the best opportunities across the entire crypto ecosystem.”

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