This article takes a look at the current cryptocurrency portfolio of Pantera Capital, a crypto hedge fund founded (and managed) by Dan Morehead, which, as of 10 April 2018, according to CNBC, had roughly $724 million in assets under management. Here are some of the more interesting constituents of the portfolio:

0x (ZRX)

An open protocol for decentralized exchange of Ethereum (ERC20) tokens. Currently, it is being considered by Coinbase for addition to its trading platforms. 

Augur (REP)

An open-source, decentralized, peer-to-peer oracle and prediction market protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. Launched on 10 July 2018. Augur native token, Reputation (REP, “is needed by market creators and by reporters when they report on the outcome of markets created on the Augur platform.” 

Bloom (BLT)

According to its white paper, Bloom is “a protocol for assessing credit risk through federated attestation-based identity verification and the creation of a network of peer-to-peer and organizational creditworthiness vouching (“credit staking”). 

Basic Attention Token (BAT)

This project is all about “a decentralized, transparent digital ad exchange based on Ethereum Blockchain.” Users of the Brave (privacy-focused) web browser are rewarded with BAT tokens for their attention, whilst publishers receive BAT tokens based on user attention. This is another one of those cryptocurrencies currently being examined by Coinbase for possible future inclusion on its trading platforms.

Civic (CVC)

Civic’s recently announced Identity.com (expected to be ready sometime in August 2018) will be “a decentralized platform that will open up access to on-demand, secure identity verification” and is “designed to connect users, requesters, and validators around the world to enable reusable identity verification.” According to the white paper, participants in the ecosystem will use the CVC token to transact in identity verification related services.

Codex (CODX)

The white paper describes Codex Protocol as “a decentralized registry for unique assets backed by an industry consortium representing 5,000 auction houses.” For such assets, “provenance (identity, chain of ownership, and other metadata about an item is fundamental to value.” The native token, CodexCoin (CODX), has several purposes:” to access and pay fees to the registry to create, amend, and transfer records”; “to align incentives with the Codex ecosystem” (i.e. rewards to validators such as auction houses and discounts for applications HODLing CODX tokens); to ensure that validators and applications are behaving properly by requiring them to stake; “to provide a mechanism for the devolution of governance to end-users over time.”

Cypher (CPH)

Cypherium is a highly scalable & permission-less hybrid blockchain platform based on proof-of-work and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) consensus. The white paper explains that the native token, Cypher (CPH),  “is the infrastructure-level cryptocurrency that is required by the platform for the execution of transactions”; CPH “acts as the incentive to secure the blockchain they are transacted over and preventive measure against Denial-of-Service attacks.”

DMarket (DMT)

This is a “blockchain-based marketplace for buying, selling, exchanging and collecting in-game items.” The “Dmarket Coin” (DMT) is the only currency used across the DMarket platform. “Every purchase, sale, exchange, or any other transaction on the platform will require the use of DMarket coins.” DMT tokens have the following purposes:

  • “As a currency for buying and selling in-game items”
  • “As a way to deliver sales commission to digital property rights owners”
  • “For buying premium accounts (for wholesale and individual sellers)”
  • “For purchasing Big Data analytics”

Doc.AI (NRN)

This is a blockchain (Ethereum) based AI platform for deep learning computations on quantified biology. The native (ERC-20 based) token is called Neuron (NRN). These tokens “give access to the AI network and reward the users with tokens for training their AI.” With these tokens, users “can broadcast a competition on NEURON and create a bounty (prize) for data scientists.” When these are successful “in building a prediction model that provides unique insights into the proposed personal quantified biology profile,” the data scientists win the prize.

Engima (ENG)

Engima is “a permissionless peer-to-peer network that allows (secret contracts) with strong correctness and privacy guarantees.” ENG Tokens are the native currency of the Enigma ecosystem. 

Filecoin (FIL)

According to its white paper: “Filecoin is a decentralized storage network that turns cloud storage into an algorithmic market. The market runs on a blockchain with a native protocol token (also called “Filecoin”), which miners earn by providing storage to clients. Conversely, clients spend Filecoin hiring miners to store or distribute data.”

FunFair (FUN)

FunFair is an Ethereum-based online casino gaming platform. The native token (FUN) is “used for all platform actions, including betting, lending, paying out players and compensating stakeholders.”

Gems (GEM)

According to the white paper, Gems “is a decentralized, open-sourced, human task crowdsourcing protocol built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. Using the Gems Protocol, anyone can tap into the power of scalable micro task workers without needing to worry about task verification, trust, or payments. Gems is designed to disincentivize malicious actors and reward fair players. The Gems Protocol is comprised of a staking mechanism to ensure task completion, a trust mechanism to track worker integrity, and a payment system to reduce transaction fees. The GEM token, a multi-utility token, fuels the Gems Protocol. Gems uses its token mechanism to enforce the behavior of all participants, instead of being regulated by a single operator.”

ICON (ICX)

From the white paper: “The ICON Project aims to build a decentralized network that allows independent blockchains with different governances to transact with one another without intermediaries. Anyone can create a new blockchain project and join the network. A new blockchain project is free to connect with existing projects and create new unique worlds, or blockchain multiverse.

OmiseGO (OMG)

The OMG network uses Plasma as a layer 2 scalability solution for finance on Ethereum, enabling transparent, peer-to-peer transactions in real-time. It is “a proof-of-stake and infinitely scalable Plasma blockchain with a decentralized exchange built into its core consensus layer.” Through staking, OMG token holders can validate transactions and earn fees.

Zcash (ZEC)

  • “Zcash is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that offers privacy and selective transparency of transactions. Zcash payments are published on a public blockchain, but the sender, recipient, and amount of a transaction remain private.”
  • “… shielded transactions in Zcash can be fully encrypted on the blockchain, yet still be verified as valid under the network’s consensus rules by using zk-SNARK proofs.”
  • “Zcash also enables users to send public payments which work similarly to Bitcoin. With the support for both shielded and transparent addresses, users can choose to send Zcash privately or publicly. Zcash payments sent from a shielded address to a transparent address reveal the received balance, while payments from a transparent address to a shielded address protect the receiving value.”
  • Currently, it is being considered by Coinbase for addition to its trading platforms.