Cash is king for Canada’s only actively managed crypto fund.
The Rivemont Crypto Fund, run by Rivemont Investments, had about 91 per cent of its $3-million of assets in cash as of July 13, with the remaining 9 per cent in Bitcoin, according to its latest weekly update on Facebook.
“I would say that the cryptocurrency market right now is not really in a bull market so people are waiting to see if it’s going down further,” president and portfolio manager Martin Lalonde said in a phone interview from Gatineau, Quebec, where the firm is based.
He’s watching Bitcoin’s 30-day moving average for a clear indication of longer-term trends and said the crowd will return quickly as soon as the price perks up. He put a little more than half of the fund’s assets into Bitcoin and Ethereum when Bitcoin crossed the technical indicator on July 4, then moved back into cash when it crossed again on July 10, he said.
The fund launched on Dec. 14, just four days before Bitcoin hit an intraday peak of $19,511. Since that high, the most widely traded cryptocurrency has lost two-thirds of its value. Lalonde’s fund lost 10 per cent between March and June versus a 32 per cent drop in Bitcoin over that time.
“Those who think that interest in cryptocurrencies is running out of steam are not watching closely,” he wrote on Facebook. “The opposite is happening.”
Currently, the fund is restricted for regulatory reasons to investing in six cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic – but Lalonde hopes to expand that significantly as the industry matures. His medium-term goal is to invest in initial coin offerings and emerging altcoins like Neo and Dash.
“The core will probably still be the major cryptocurrencies because that’s what the investors know about and want in their portfolio, but I would think another half of the portfolio would probably be in smaller cryptocurrencies, more speculative ones, and some that we think will probably have better performance,” he said.
As for Bitcoin, Lalonde believes it will remain volatile but is headed to new highs in the next couple of years.
“We’re very bullish, we think it could easily double or triple from where it is right now,” he said. The currency was quoted up 7.7 per cent at $6,663.80 late Monday.