Crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital has launched a new fund worth $150 million and also established a dedicated venture arm to invest in crypto firms.

BlockTower aims to invest the fund in operational crypto firms with check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $5 million. It has made 10 investments so far in 2022, deploying $20 million, Forbes reported Thursday.

The report also pointed out that as per a 2021 filing, the firm had over $1 billion in assets under management which in the current bearish period amount to $500 million.

BlockTower's new dedicated venture arm is led by Thomas Klocanas who is a general partner with the investment firm and also managed a $50 million digital asset fund at White Star Capital, a prominent VC firm.

Matthew Goetz, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, and Ari Paul, a former University of Chicago endowment manager, are the founders of the investment firm.

Initially, Klocanas, Goetz, and Paul set out to raise $100 million but capped their venture fund at $150 million. The backers of the fund include MassMutual, French investment bank Bpifrance, former Midas List investor Roger Ehrenberg and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

As per the report, BlockTower Capital will issue checks and take a 10% stake in a startup and a 5% stake in a token project.

The trio confirmed that BlockTower has already invested in Lighthouse, a would-be search engine for the metaverse. The fundraising for the startup was co-led with Accel in May.

Additionally, BlockTower Capital has also invested in Aptos, a startup founded by ex-Meta employees, which recently raised $150 million in a new funding round in which FTX Ventures, the venture arm of crypto exchange FTX, and Jump Crypto, a division of the Jump Trading Group, participated.

Illustration shows representation of cryptocurrency Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dash plunging into water
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