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Decentralized Finance: a cutting edge discussion among the early adopters and innovators in the industry
Thursday, May 06, 2021, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM PDT
Category: Past Events

Decentralized Finance: a cutting edge discussion among the early adopters and innovators in the industry

Dear SAIA Community,

We are excited to announce our first event of the year, which will be focused on decentralized finance. We last hosted an event on blockchain in the fall of 2017. Since then, there has been an explosion of interest in the space among institutional investors and an evolution of investment opportunities and products. We have assembled an exciting group of leaders and early adopters in both cryptocurrency and blockchain technology investing:

  • Richard Craib (Founder & CEO – Numerai). Numerai is an AI-run, open source hedge fund that was the first hedge fund to create its own cryptocurrency.

  • Joey Krug (Co-CIO – Pantera Capital). In 2017, Pantera Capital offered the first early-stage token fund. A leader in the space, Pantera Capital has invested digital assets and blockchain companies since 2013.

  • Matt Hougan (CIO – Bitwise Asset Management). A pioneer in the crypto asset management space, Bitwise created the world's first cryptocurrency index fund.

  • Tracy Fong (Partner and Private Markets Diligence Analyst – Albourne Partners) will moderate the lively discussion. Albourne Partners is an investment consulting firm that advises on over $550 billion of alternative assets, including crypto and blockchain.

This event will provide a broad array of industry perspectives, including updates on the democratization of access for investors and an exploration of some of the most innovative and exciting topics today.

While we have missed seeing you all in person at our quarterly events, this event will be virtual. We cannot wait to get in person events start back up!

To register and for more information about the event and our panel, please see below:

Event Details & Registration:

Date: May 6th, 2021
Time: 2:00PM (Pacific Time)
Location: Online
Cost: Free
Registration Link: Click Here

Panel Information:

 

Richard Craib

Founder & CEO - Numerai 

Richard Craib is the Founder and CEO of Numerai, based in San Francisco. Craib graduated Cornell University with a BA in Mathematics in 2012 with a focus in abstract algebra. He has also taken classes at UC Berkeley, Stanford and the University of Cape Town. Before starting Numerai, Craib was a quant at an asset management firm with $15 billion in assets under management in Cape Town, South Africa, where he built a global equity long-only fund powered by machine learning.

 

Joey Krug

Co-Chief Investment Officer - Pantera

Joey joined Pantera to help manage the funds in 2017. Joey started programming in Applesoft BASIC when in middle school after his dad bought him an Apple II GS on eBay. He studied CS in college because he enjoys being able to translate his ideas into code. Prior to joining Pantera, Joey built a point of sale system enabling Bitcoin payments with sound (and did the first Bitcoin payment over sound) and Bluetooth. He is also a cofounder of the Forecast Foundation, a group that contributes to Augur, a decentralized prediction market platform and solution to the oracle problem. He also started an AngelList syndicate with a friend which is now one of the top fifteen by backing and is a Thiel Fellow and Edmund Hillary Fellow.

Matt Hougan

Chief Investment Officer - Bitwise Asset Management

 Matt Hougan is one of the world’s leading experts on crypto, ETFs, and financial technology. He is the Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise Asset Management, the world’s largest provider of cryptocurrency index funds, with more than $1 billion in assets under management. He was previously CEO of ETF.com and Inside ETFs, where he helped build the world’s first ETF data and analytics system, the leading ETF media site, and the world’s largest ETF conference. Hougan is co-author of two publications from the CFA Institute Research Foundation: “A Comprehensive Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds” and “Cryptoassets: The Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies for Professional Investors.” He is a crypto columnist for Forbes, a three-time member of the Barron’s ETF Roundtable, and a member of the ETFdb’s ETF Hall of Fame. Hougan sits on the board of directors for Equbot, creator of the first AI-driven ETFs (in partnership with IBM Watson), and is a strategic advisor to multiple crypto- and financial advisor-related startups, including Blockworks, Stratifi, Advisor Circle, and Exchange ETF.

 Moderator:

 

Tracy Fong

Partner & Private Markets Diligence Analyst - Albourne Partners

Ms. Tracy Fong is an alternative investment professional with over 22 years of experience across startups, public technology companies, investment banking, alternatives endowment management, fixed income and foreign exchange, and strategic equities management. She has a passion for global, complex and emergent investment opportunities, e.g. healthcare structured investments in 2015, SaaS revenue-based loans and marketplace lending in 2016, technology company SPACs in 2017, and crypto/digital assets in 2017. Ms. Fong is a Partner and Private Markets Investment Due Diligence Analyst at Albourne Partners, a leading investment consulting firm that advises on over $550bn of alternative assets to over 300 institutional clients. She leads the Firm’s global Venture Capital coverage (including crypto/blockchain) and previously served as the co-chair of the Private Markets Investment Committee. Ms. Fong was previously a Managing Director at SVB Capital’s $4bn+ VC fund-of-funds and direct VC fund. Ms. Fong also spent four years at the Harvard University endowment, Harvard Management Company, where she was Vice President of Alternative Assets and worked on HMC’s $20bn+ alternatives portfolio construction, investment manager selection, and direct natural resources transactions (including timber and agriculture). Her Venture Capital experience included allocations to prominent access-constrained firms and strategic transactions resulting from the IPOs of numerous portfolio companies. Prior to business school, she also worked at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) on the Corporate Finance and Treasury Team, where her group managed Yahoo!’s $4bn+ fixed income portfolio; worked on structured transactions; and helped manage 30 acquisitions, including the landmark joint venture with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). Ms. Fong has also worked in Investment Banking at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs where she worked on Technology Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Finance transactions including the IPO of Netscreen Technologies (NASDAQ: NSCN) and NPTest Holding (NASDAQ: NPTT). During the first technology boom, Ms. Fong began her career at two startup companies, Webvan Group (NASDAQ: WBVN) and Varsitybooks.com. Webvan, a Sequoia and Benchmark-backed company, was one of the first online grocery delivery services, was called by CNET one of the most well-known companies of the dot-com era. Today, Ms. Fong is recognized as an early participant in the crypto and digital asset market, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain developer projects and recognition as one of recognized women in crypto. She has relationships with developers, founders, VCs, and hedge funds. She enjoys incorporating her relevant long history and experiences in macroeconomics, public fixed income, emerging markets debt, and commodities investing.  Ms. Fong received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley (honors recognition) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. In her spare time, Ms. Fong enjoys adventurous international travel (~60 countries), immersive art projects, listening to podcasts, and scuba diving. She is based in San Francisco, California, and is planning to spend meaningful time in NYC and Miami in 2021-2022.

We look forward to hosting you!

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