Ex-Kraken Trading Head Leads Crypto Quant Fund With $23M in Assets, $2.3B in Trades

Galois Capital, a San Francisco cryptocurrency hedge fund that launched in January 2018, said in an investor letter and financial filings that it increased its holdings from $10 million to $23 million in two years with high-frequency trading and funds from new investors lured by returns. A quantitative fund manager, Galois Capital computationally makes bulk volumes of speedy, precise trades shaped by its founder and lead trader Kevin Zhou, previously head of trading at American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and a team of technical talent.

Galois Capital built much of this architecture from the ground up, with custom tools such as co-located servers and network adapters, due to what Zhou cites as a dearth of heavy-duty options for cryptocurrency traders found at Hudson River Trading and Jane Street Capital, two of the biggest Wall Street quantitative trading funds. Galois Capital opened cryptocurrency futures and swaps in April 2019 and long-short trades in August 2019 to more cheaply hedge spot exposure and arbitrage price disparities with derivatives, the investor letter says.

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