This Hedge Fund Trying to Become the Top Pod Shop in Crypto is Rethinking the Multi-Manager Hedge Fund Model | Anatoly Crachilov of Nickel Digital
Description
This Other People’s Money episode is brought to you by CAIA.nxt. Learn more about their alternatives education courses for investment advisors and get 10% off with code MMTEN: https://caia.org/content/welcome-monetary-matters-and-other-peoples-money-listeners
Anatoly Crachilov, CEO and Co-Founder of Nickel Digital Asset Management, joins Other People’s Money to discuss why crypto is the perfect asset class for the multi-manager pod shop model. He also explains how Nickel is taking a “West Berlin” approach to partnering with external traders compared to the “East Berlin” approach of many traditional pod shops where non-competes and strict control of IP is the norm. He also discusses why 2025 has been a difficult year for crypto traders, how their team is managing the choppy markets, and how scaled up pods and incubation stage pods managed the extreme volatility in October.
Follow Anatoly Crachilov on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anatoly-crachilov/
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:38 CAIA.nxt
01:24 Multi-Manager Origin Story
03:12 No Central Book or Alpha Capture
04:32 Expanding Number of Pods
06:15 Technology Enabled Growth
10:09 Onboarding a New Pod
14:38 Benefits of Crypto's Infinite Divisibility
15:58 CAIA.nxt
16:54 Determining the Scalability of Strategies
18:03 Minimum & Maximum Pod Sizes at Scale
18:33 Measuring Risk Adjusted Returns
20:34 Pod Compensation and Fund Level Fees
24:43 Winning the War for Talent
29:29 Pods Can Be Independent Prop Shops and Single Managers
35:03 Demand for Crypto Multi-Manager Funds
39:02 Reducing Risk in Crypto with 3rd Party Settlement & Custodians
46:08 Crypto Still Has Low Liquidity
49:41 The Cost of Poor Trade Execution in Crypto
53:16 Current Environment for Crypto
58:22 Risk Management Adjustments in a Choppy Year
01:02:04 Different Testing Environments for New Pods
01:06:30 What Happens When a Scaled Pod Has a Drawdown?
01:09:35 Conclusion
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