Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_620dcc7aef20b" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Castle Island Venture Fund III will focus on financing startups building monetary networks, internet infrastructure and financial services</li>
 <li>The $250 million fund follows its second fund focused exclusively on public blockchains</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures has announced a $250 million raise for its latest crypto fund focused on startups building out monetary networks, internet infrastructure and financial services.



Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/castle-island-ventures-raises-hundreds-of-millions-for-new-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously reported</a> on the imminent launch of the fund, dubbed Castle Island Ventures III.



According to a company <a href="https://medium.com/castle-island-ventures/announcing-castle-island-ventures-iii-25b91a792e6a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a> on Wednesday, Castle Island Ventures said it believed the industry was in its &#8220;early days&#8221; of a monetary transition toward a rules-based monetary order and was seeking to capitalize on the movement.



&#8220;The new fund will support our mission to partner with visionary entrepreneurs building transformative companies powered by public blockchains,&#8221; company partner Matt Walsh said in the post. 



<a href="https://www.castleisland.vc/portfolio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Castle Island&#8217;s portfolio</a> includes a number of well-known crypto startups and ventures, including BlockFi, Bitwise, CoinMetrics, Mash, MoonPay and River Financial.



Walsh further said his company intended to invest in firms it believed could affect change in the financial services sector whilst leveraging Web3 protocols to shake up legacy financial services firms and their inability to evolve.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;In parallel to the monetary and financial transformation that is underway, ‘Web3’ and new internet architectures propose digital property rights and enable new protocols and businesses that seek to disrupt and disempower online data and tech monopolies,&#8221; Walsh said.</blockquote>



The Boston-based company also announced Ria Bhutoria — formerly director of research at Fidelity — as general partner, joining the likes of Nic Carter, Walsh and Sean Judge.



Its latest raise follows its previous <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/castle-island-ventures-raises-second-50-million-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> fund last year, focused exclusively on public blockchains. The company&#8217;s first fund debuted back in 2018 and was valued at $30 million.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>
</ul>

Castle Island Ventures

Castle Island Ventures Confirms $250M Fund Targeting Web3 Startups

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_61e5a54946010" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Dual Worlds’ flagship vehicle plans to invest in both digital assets-focused hedge and venture funds</li>
 <li>The fund will focus on decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, the metaverse, Web 3.0 and play-to-earn gaming</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A former Fidelity Digital Funds executive is launching a crypto fund of funds that would back both venture and hedge funds focused on digital assets, according to three people familiar with the matter.



Michael Zinaman plans to hold a first close on capital for the flagship vehicle of his new Dual Worlds firm in February, sources said. A second close would occur sometime later in the year, with the goal being to raise $50 to $100 million overall.&nbsp;



Sources were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive business dealings. Zinaman declined to comment.&nbsp;



The flagship vehicle, Dual Worlds Fund 1, plans to invest in crypto portfolio managers worldwide — ranging from new launches to established funds. It will write both limited-partnership checks and invest in general-partnership stakes or seeding deals from time to time.



Zinaman also plans to make direct equity investments, usually as a co-investment alongside a partner fund.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Fund of funds landscape</h3>



The number of newcomer crypto portfolio managers from top-tier investment backgrounds has increased exponentially in the last year, industry participants say. This, in turn, has led to a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fidelity-most-institutional-investors-open-to-crypto-want-an-etf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">boom</a> in the fund of funds market as more opportunities have arisen to get in on the ground floor of a new crop of digital asset investors. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The fund of funds landscape is really interesting, right, because you have an emergence of crypto funds,” one source familiar with Dual Worlds said. “There’s a lot of them getting started, and they&#8217;re starting to really specialize. You&#8217;re starting to see funds that only do [decentralized finance], funds that only do gaming — you can go down the list.”</blockquote>



Indeed, Dual Worlds plans to focus on strategies specializing in what Zinaman views as the next frontiers of crypto: DeFi, non-fungible tokens, the metaverse, Web 3.0 and play-to-earn gaming.&nbsp;



Joining Zinaman at Dual Worlds are Chris Ott of family office Falcon Capital and Trevor Cohen of Nebari, an investment firm focused on natural resources.&nbsp;



Ott, a founding member and principal of Naples, Fla.-based Falcon, which runs a proprietary trading desk, is a general partner at Dual Worlds. Cohen, a hedge fund veteran and Nebari’s chief financial officer, holds the title of chief operating officer for Dual Worlds and also oversees financial functions.



Dual Worlds counts Matt Walsh, partner at the crypto venture capital firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fidelity-veterans-go-full-time-crypto-at-the-right-time/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Castle Island Ventures</a>, as a strategic advisor — one of several high-profile advisors to the firm. Walsh declined to comment on Dual Worlds when contacted by Blockworks.



Zinaman also has a number of venture partners whose performance is taken into account when it comes to Dual Worlds’ marketing efforts.



Before working at Fidelity Digital Funds — the crypto asset-management arm of Fidelity, Zinaman spent time as a managing director focused on blockchain and digital assets for Canaccord Genuity. 



He previously spent about a decade in institutional fixed-income sales, specializing in emerging markets.  



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>
</ul>

Matt Walsh

Newsletter

Blockworks Research