Arthur Hayes establishes venture capital firm Maelstrom Capital, focusing on investing in crypto infrastructure.

The founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, and former Head of Corporate Development, Akshat Vaidya, have launched Maelstrom Capital, a venture supported by Hayes' family office, focusing on investments in cryptocurrencies and digital assets, with Vaidya serving as the Chief Investment Officer.

Maelstrom is currently targeting infrastructure companies due to the strong technological moat that infrastructure trading offers, along with the ease of understanding the business. Maelstrom Capital's funds are entirely from the Hayes family, allowing for a leisurely search for good investment opportunities without the pressure of capital deployment timelines.

The Bear Market is the Best Time for Deployment

Arthur Hayes stated in an interview with CoinDesk that

during this phase of the cycle, making money is important, but it is also crucial to do due diligence during the bear market to determine which companies truly have value and which are just imitating.

He mentioned that companies like Compound, Aave, and Uniswap were all founded in 2017 but did not come into view until 2019, and it was not until the DeFi Summer of 2020 that they truly became mainstream.

Arthur Hayes also mentioned that when the time is right, he would not hesitate to invest in some shitcoins because high returns in the cryptocurrency market happen when the market turns from bear to bull. He bluntly stated that he is not fixated on always focusing on quality; sometimes he invests in a whole pile of crap, abandons it three months later, and that's how the story goes.

Investing Overseas

Arthur Hayes was once a target of the U.S. government's crackdown on cryptocurrencies. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged BitMEX, once the world's largest Bitcoin futures exchange, in October 2020 for operating illegally without registration and violating anti-money laundering laws. In the end, he chose to plead guilty in exchange for non-prosecution.

Therefore, Investment Director Vaidya also emphasized the advantage of investing in infrastructure projects, as many infrastructure projects are less likely to be targeted by regulatory authorities at this stage. Vaidya mentioned that they invested in EtherFi, a decentralized non-custodial liquidity collateral platform that raised $5 million in February.

No one can chase it, and it won't receive a Wells notice.

All of Maelstrom's portfolio companies, except one without a token model, are located outside the United States.