The family office of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes is moving into private equity. He is seeking to raise at least $250 million for its inaugural fund focused on the digital asset space.
Sources confirmed the launch of the private equity vehicle, which is designed to acquire and consolidate medium-sized companies within the rapidly maturing cryptocurrency industry.
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The fund plans to invest $40 million to $75 million per deal to acquire as many as six companies, said Maelstrom Co-founder and Managing Partner, Akshat Vaidya.
Private equity (PE) investment in the crypto space has dropped since the market crash and high-profile failures of 2022, notably the collapse of FTX.
According to Pitchbook, PE funding for crypto companies has fallen to $1.4 billion so far this year, a decline from its peak of about $4 billion in 2021. This shows that institutional PE investors have been cautious about re-entering the digital-asset sector.
This cautious environment for crypto-focused funds is happening even as the broader private equity industry is also grappling with a challenging fundraising climate. Bain & Co. estimates that over 18,000 funds are currently seeking to raise $3.3 trillion, showing a competitive and difficult landscape for all new funds, including Maelstrom’s.
The fundraising underscores a growing trend of institutionalization within crypto, where established players like Hayes are leveraging traditional finance strategies to achieve, scale and extract value from the sector’s infrastructure. By targeting medium-sized firms, the fund aims to capitalize on businesses that have proven market traction but may require capital injection or operational restructuring to achieve their next stage of growth.
The initiative arrives at a time when the digital asset ecosystem is showing increased maturity, marked by a rise in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. A successful $250 million close for this fund would provide substantial liquidity and a new strategic lifeline for mid-tier crypto firms. This could potentially work to reshape the competitive landscape across key service areas like trading, infrastructure, and custody.
Also Read: Arthur Hayes Predicts $1M Bitcoin Peak Before 2029 Crash
