Harvard University is among the biggest names in the world when it comes to the world of education. It has been a place where several modern-day geniuses have studied. From Microsoft to Facebook, Harvard has been the educational institute which has been responsible for several innovations over the years. A group of Harvard students have now set their sights on the cryptocurrency markets!
4 Harvard students have teamed up to start off a cryptocurrency hedge fund, Plympton Capital. Among the four co-founders is 19 years old Bushra Hamid, daughter of Syrian immigrants. Together, the four intend to start off this cryptocurrency hedge fund, which is expected to launch in about six to eight weeks - and will launch with an initial capital of $1 Million. Over $700,000 have already been raised with the help of friends and family.
Plympton Capital gets its name from Plympton, a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As of last count, there are 226 Hedge Funds in the markets - some of which have eventually shut down. A majority of these cryptocurrency hedge funds are quite young, less than a year old! Reports from Autonomous Research LLP indicate that 167 cryptocurrency hedge funds opened up last year - as compared to just 19 in the previous year - a number that has already been surpassed in the first quarter of 2018.
Plympton capital is banking on the fact that the youth are interested in cryptocurrency investments. Research indicates that 4% of people between the age of 18 to 34 years have owned Bitcoin at some point in time. This number is twice that of when you compare those older to them! 16% of people aged 18-34 have shown an active interest in buying Bitcoins in the future.
“Some people might see our age, and see this is a new growing space that’s largely driven by the millennials,” Junaid Zubair, another Plympton founder, said. “That allows for a high sense of liability but also passion and interest. There we might have an advantage.” As per Zubair, Plympton Capital will make use of a number of techniques, including but not limited to technical analysis of cryptocurrencies, arbitrage, portfolio optimizations and the use of machine learning to find the right investments.
Bushra Hamid is also the founder of the ‘Harvard Blockchain Group’, which currently comprises of over 300 students! Plympton Capital reached out to John Lore, an attorney who has helped set up over 30 cryptocurrency hedge funds. Lore is working with the students pro bono. It is good to see market experts offering pro bono services to youngsters who are starting off something which is likely to re-shape the modern day economic systems!
“Balancing running a fund and school is challenging, but part of the reason we have four co-founders, that’s allowed us to get where we have given time constraints with school,” another of the four co-founders, Scott Sussex said in a phone interview with Bloomberg. “It’s meetings that start at dinner at go into the evenings, a lot of the weekends.”