Yale University’s endowment will reportedly back a $400m cryptocurrency-focused fund called Paradigm together with investors including Sequoia Capital.
Yale University’s endowment is among the limited partners in a targeted $400m fund called Paradigm set up to back digital asset-focused businesses, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
Paradigm, whose other investors include venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, will seek investments in early-stage businesses working with cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies and exchanges.
The vehicle is being launched by Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of digital currency exchange operator Coinbase, and Charles Noyes, the former principal of cryptocurrency-focused investment firm Pantera Capital. Yale has not provided an official comment.
Investing in Paradigm would put Yale in contrast to other endowments and foundations reluctant to push into digital currencies amid turbulence on crypto markets and a perceived lack of regulation.
Approximately 96% of endowments and foundations surveyed by consultancy NEPC in February 2018 said they did not have investments in digital currencies, according to Bloomberg.
Yale’s near-$30bn endowment is the second largest in US higher education behind Harvard, with 60% of its projected outlay for the 2019 fiscal year earmarked for alternative investments.
The operation has been helmed by chief investment officer, David Swensen, for the past 32 years, generally pursuing a longer-term strategic purview which favours illiquid assets including stocks in private companies.
