Hello Cascadia Community:

Last month we featured a Bellevue based blockchain infrastructure company, Dragonchain. This month, we are featuring another local community favorite, an algorithmic trading hedge fund, Strix Leviathan, led by local serial entrepreneur, Jesse Proudman. I encourage the community to show support for our local companies: follow them on Twitter @Strix Leviathan, visit their website, and let others globally know that we have companies like Strix Leviathan in our Pacific Northwest community. #togetherWeRise

–Arry, Chair of the Cascadia Blockchain Council

Tell us about your company and the problem you are trying to solve

Cryptocurrencies are one of the most talked about asset classes of the last decade and an emerging component of many savvy investor portfolios. We enable investors to gain portfolio exposure to the cryptocurrency markets through an actively managed investment fund. Our active investment approach primarily leverages Trend Following / Momentum based strategies to capture alpha from the volatility of the cryptocurrency markets. The investment fund is run on a proprietary software platform that supports our activities from trade conception to execution. Our objective is to deliver long-term outperformance with lower beta and correlation to the broader cryptocurrency asset class.                            

How is your company using blockchain and why is it the best solution for the problem you’re trying to solve

We trade large-cap cryptocurrencies that are powered by blockchain technology. Our thesis is that these assets have very opaque fundamental value. As such we expect an extended period of uncertainty in markets whereby asset prices will fluctuate wildly. Our solution is to systematically execute Trend and Momentum based investment strategies that harvest yield from the that market volatility. We think that this approach provides superior risk-adjusted returns to a buy and hold strategy. 

What about blockchain gets you most excited for the future

We think that cryptocurrency has a big future ahead and are excited to see broader adoption of the asset class and further innovation of blockchain technology. We are also excited to see the trading infrastructure continue to evolve and mature, particularly as more fiat on-ramps emerge. While our focus is on cryptocurrency trading we recognize that this is merely one application of blockchain technology and that decentralized ledger technology has the potential to disrupt any system where a broker or intermediary holds undue bargaining power. Areas like gaming, prediction markets, and hard asset tokenization are all very exciting.

What are some of your greatest wins as a company

We are most proud of the Strix Leviathan software platform that is core to all we do.  We see this platform as a differentiator within a space where many investment funds manage portfolios with spreadsheets. The software platform has been in development for two years and is the culmination of more than 15,000 code commits. As a comprehensive portfolio management system, we are able to ingest real-time trading data, develop investment theses, rapidly prototype trading strategies, execute orders, and track individual trades. We can even generate a real-time net asset values to provide our investors with up-to-date information on the performance of their investment. Aside from that, we are lucky to have an outstanding team of professionals with complementary skill sets and deep subject matter expertise. I’m really proud of our team.  

What’s one thing you know now that you wish you’d known when you started

We knew this space didn’t have clear regulatory guidance, but it was not clear how challenging trying to operate the “right way” in that type of environment could be. 

What’s next for your company

We fully expect the cryptocurrency trading markets to continue to evolve and thus are focused on ways to remain flexible and adaptable. We are looking at improving our investment strategies through the advent of alternative data sources, differentiated analysis techniques, and further software capabilities. Our focus is to deliver our investors with superior risk-adjusted returns 

What’s one thing you need help with right now

Awareness. We’ve worked hard to build an institutional-grade fund and software platform. The challenge now is to ensure we are speaking to the right folks that have an interest in our space, while continuing to deliver performance to our current investors. 

Are you hiring?  If so, what roles

Not at this time