Billion-dollar crypto fund backed by Founders from a16z, Solana and more.

The new investment firm, founded by Joe McCann, aims to raise $ 1 billion in capital to join new funds such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm and Katie Haun.

McCann - whose career has included John Burbank's systematic business with Passport Capital in Microsoft's strategy - named the latest crypto-brand investment firm Asymmetric.

But McCann wants to point out how his new business differs from the fast-growing list of crypto-market capitalization providers. And if you ask him to describe Asymmetric, he'll probably say "technology company" before it's "investment company."

"We have a technological view of cryptocurrencies," he told The Block. "We are a technology company with a fund mandate."

Of course, McCann is not the only fund manager to report technology cuts. A16z Crypto recently launched a full-fledged research lab that addresses some of the most difficult crypto issues, while Paradigm is known for hiring top developers to work with its investors.

But McCann was a crypto entrepreneur before the launch of Asymmetric, which runs NodeSource, which McCann described in an episode of the 2019 podcast The Scoop as an open source "software development engine." He also contributed code to Solana Anchor's development toolkit.

"When it comes to open source tools, it's literally what I've built into the business," he says.

As for the team, employees include Chris Cecere, a former portfolio manager at Brevan Howard, Bouchra Darwazah, a Goldman Sachs graduate, and Brett Beller, the founder of Drizla.

"Most funds think ahead"

McCann was able to persuade some of the biggest names in cryptospace to support him, including Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon of the a16z. Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal of Solana also invested in Asymmetric, along with Dan Matuszewski, FTX, Circle and former Coinsbas President Asiff Hirji of CMS. Tiger Global promoter Scott Schleifer is also an LP.

Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain of Multicoin also invested.

"We are thrilled that Circle Ventures has become an investor in the Asymmetric Fund, one of the most progressive cryptocurrency funds," said Jeremy Allaire of Circle. Matuszewski of CMS puts it more simply: "I'm tall Joe."

However, McCann is not always "irresponsible" for his investments. If the fund has been exposed to a token by a particular token trade, this can be quite pragmatic.

"Suppose we get a 10% token allocation, and if it's 100% off the gate, you may be irresponsible for not getting your principle. It acts as a charge for our LP."

This is an interesting market position where many funds ride a wave of wealth in protocol or token betting.

Asymmetric is divided into two cars: venture capital fund and liquid. The former will first approach companies such as Paradigm and Multicoin in arranging token trading, while the former will operate somewhat similarly with the Wall Street hedge fund. He will use the most complex Wall Street tools to do this.

"The purpose of a liquidity fund is to manage liquidity with a level of efficiency that most investors do not have," he said.

For example, the fund may look like ether because it has a low value. Instead of just buying a large amount of ETH over the counter, the fund can express such a view through options.

"If ETH reaches $ 10,000 and we buy call options at the end of the year, it's a better way to use the tools to express that vision," he said. According to McCann, most crypto-venture funds and new revenues from Market Street in San Francisco do not use this Wall Street tool.

"TradVC doesn't normally have to manage a liquid book. In cryptocurrency, you do," McCann said. "Most funds only buy ETH."