Hedge Funds Battle to Survive After FTX Exchange Collapse

Some hedge funds were able to weather the storm and remain solvent despite being adversely affected by the failure of the FTX exchange, while others were forced to make the decision to liquidate their holdings and cease operations as a result of the financial crisis.

CoinShares, an institutional crypto fund manager, underlined the fact that the company remained "financially solid" in its fourth-quarter report for 2022. This was despite the fact that the company had to cope with the FTX crash at the end of the year. The fund also showed its successes, including its graduation to the principal market of Nasdaq Stockholm and its high levels of inflow into CoinShares physical exchange traded goods.

Following the filing of its bankruptcy petition, CoinShares said that assets worth more than $31 million were frozen on the FTX exchange. The management of the fund does not know for certain if they will ever be able to retrieve the monies or how much of the assets can be retrieved at this time.

During the course of the quarter, the company came to the conclusion that it would no longer maintain its CoinShares consumer platform. The company explained its decision in writing, stating that "Market circumstances gave birth to a scenario that did not enable us, with our present financial structure, to sustain a consumer activity that needed large upfront expenditure in marketing."

The Chief Executive Officer of CoinShares, Jean-Marie Mognetti, said in a letter to investors that the failure of FTX "had a substantial effect" on the company's ability to implement its algorithmic trading platform, HAL, in European markets. In spite of this, Mognetti also noted that the company will continue into 2023 with defined objectives, such as concentrating on increasing its digital asset management business and the institutional products it provides.

Galois Capital, a hedge fund, did not have the same level of success as CoinShares when it came to weathering the FTX storm. The fund announced to its investors on February 20 that it would be winding down its operations due to the losses that it sustained as a result of the collapse of FTX. The company made the executive decision to return the remainder of its cash to its investors and to sell its claims to purchasers who were better equipped to pursue bankruptcy claims.