Crypto Fund Strategy: 4 Proven Pillars Elite Managers Use to Evaluate Blockchain Investments

Crypto fund strategy separates serious institutional managers from retail speculation, and Jeff Sekinger built a 230+ LP fund by mastering both the evaluation framework and the capital raising engine behind it.

Ryan Miller BSc., MFin. | Host, Making Billions Podcast | LinkedIn

Key Takeaways on Crypto Fund Strategy

• Understand how a disciplined crypto fund strategy built around layer one blockchain analysis can form the foundation of an institutional-grade investment process.
• Discover why crypto fund strategy that targets on-chain metrics, including active wallets, developer activity, and total value locked, provides a structured approach to asset evaluation in a highly speculative market.
• Learn how personal branding and transparent storytelling helped one fund manager onboard a new LP nearly every day for two consecutive months during early-stage fundraising.
• Explore why investing your own capital alongside LPs signals conviction and materially strengthens the capital raising conversation for fund managers at every stage.
• Consider how reputation and relationship management, described in this episode as reputational currency, functions as the single most important long-term asset in any crypto fund strategy or broader capital raising effort.

How One Crypto Fund Strategy Grew From a Personal Inflection Point

Crypto fund strategy rarely begins in a boardroom, and for Jeff Sekinger, founder and CEO of Orca Capital and 0percent.com, it began with a financial hole, a health crisis, and a decision to stop escaping reality and start building one worth living in. In this episode of Making Billions Podcast, Sekinger walks host Ryan Miller through the full origin story of how personal adversity shaped one of the more discussed crypto fund strategies in the alternative asset space.

Sekinger first purchased Bitcoin in 2013 at $130, sold in 2014, and then spent several years working in asset management at one of the largest banks in the United States. When Bitcoin surged from $1,100 to $20,000 in 2017, he began researching the technology behind blockchain in earnest, not just the price, but the structural case for crypto as a legitimate and enduring asset class. That research, combined with his exit from corporate finance in 2018 and the launch of his first fund in April 2019, formed the bedrock of what would become a multi-fund crypto fund strategy operating under a single management company.

The broader lesson Sekinger draws from his origin story is one that applies to any fund manager: turning problems into purpose creates authenticity that capital responds to. His crypto fund strategy was not built on a pitch deck alone. It was built on lived experience, transparent communication, and a willingness to be publicly accountable. According to Sekinger, the moment he stopped trying to appear invincible and committed to being unstoppable was the moment his fundraising trajectory changed.

The Capital Raising Engine Behind a Crypto Fund Strategy With 230+ LPs

Crypto fund strategy execution without a capital raising infrastructure is incomplete, and Sekinger is explicit about this throughout the episode. He describes conducting over 600 sales calls across roughly two and a half years, ultimately building a base of more than 230 limited partners across multiple funds within his management company. That volume of investor conversations did not happen by accident. It was the result of a deliberate and repeatable system built around personal brand, community, and trust.

The core principle Sekinger attributes to his fundraising success is a phrase he uses throughout the episode: “If they don’t know you, they can’t flow you.” This idea, that visibility precedes capital, is central to his crypto fund strategy and his broader philosophy on fund management. He invested heavily in content creation across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, not to manufacture a persona, but to give prospective investors enough exposure to decide whether they trusted him.

According to Sekinger, high-ticket investors typically need at least seven hours of exposure to a person before committing ten thousand dollars or more, and he believes a similar dynamic governs LP relationships in the fund world.

A structural advantage in Sekinger’s crypto fund strategy was the pipeline created by 0percent.com, his financial consulting and education company. Clients who engaged with his educational programs, built rapport with his team, and observed results within the community naturally converted into fund investors over time. This warm-funnel approach, where education precedes investment, produced a quality of LP relationship that cold outreach rarely replicates. Ryan Miller framed this dynamic on the show as the R&R principle: reputation and relationships are the two most valuable assets a fund manager possesses, and optimizing both consistently is what causes deals and capital to start moving toward you rather than away from you.

According to Sekinger, the referral mechanism was equally important once the fund began performing. He describes asking existing LPs a simple but powerful question: who else do you know, like you, who would benefit from what we do? That one question generated dozens of highly qualified warm leads and accelerated the LP growth curve during what he describes as a period of nearly one new investor per day for two consecutive months.

This referral-driven component of his crypto fund strategy reflects a broader principle: operational credibility and investment performance, when combined with a transparent communication culture, produce organic distribution that no marketing budget can replicate. According to the SEC’s investor education resources, the relationship between fund managers and investors is built on disclosure and trust, a principle Sekinger’s approach reflects at every stage.

Why Skin in the Game Is Non-Negotiable for Any Crypto Fund Strategy

A crypto fund strategy that asks LPs to commit capital while the general partner remains on the sidelines sends a damaging signal. Sekinger addresses this directly in the episode, noting that he and his co-general partner, a trader with over a decade of experience whom Sekinger has known since middle school, have consistently been among the top four largest investors across every fund they have launched. This is not a contractual formality. It is, according to Sekinger, a fundamental expression of conviction in the product itself.

The logic behind this element of their crypto fund strategy is straightforward. When a general partner invests alongside limited partners in materially the same way, the alignment of interests becomes visible and verifiable rather than implied. Sekinger explains that this dynamic removes a layer of doubt from the investor conversation. The GP is not just managing capital; they are also a participant in the outcome. As Investopedia notes, GP co-investment is widely regarded as one of the clearest signals of alignment available to prospective LPs evaluating a fund.

Sekinger also emphasizes in this episode that the crypto fund strategy proof of concept preceded the capital raise by design. The first fund, launched in April 2019, was structured explicitly as a track record vehicle. He and his partner invested their own capital, ran the strategy through the full year, and only began raising money in 2020 after the numbers validated the thesis. That sequencing, build the proof then scale the raise, reflects a discipline that is often discussed but rarely executed with the patience Sekinger describes.

The Layer One Framework at the Core of This Crypto Fund Strategy

Crypto fund strategy that does not distinguish between the 20,000-plus coins currently in existence is not a strategy. It is speculation. Sekinger’s approach, as described in this episode, is built on a deliberate preference for layer one blockchain protocols, and the reasoning behind that preference is grounded in analytical structure rather than sentiment. Understanding why layer one assets anchor his crypto fund strategy requires a brief explanation of what they are.

A layer one blockchain, as Sekinger explains, is a base-level network on which applications and other protocols can be built. Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polkadot, and Fantom are examples he references in this episode. The analogy he uses is Amazon Web Services: just as developers can build applications on top of AWS infrastructure, developers can build decentralized applications on top of layer one blockchains. Layer two solutions, such as Polygon, are scaling mechanisms that support layer one networks by processing transactions off the primary chain and reducing congestion, a necessity Sekinger illustrates by noting that Ethereum processes only twelve transactions per second despite massive user growth.

The distinction matters for crypto fund strategy because layer one assets can be evaluated using on-chain data, while tokens built on top of these chains are significantly harder to value analytically. The structural preference for layer ones in Sekinger’s crypto fund strategy also reflects market reality. As he notes in this episode, virtually every asset in the top ten by market cap, excluding stablecoins, is a layer one blockchain. Going where the institutional and market capital concentrates is not a coincidence. It is the product of a crypto fund strategy that respects the relationship between network utility, developer activity, and long-term asset value.

For fund managers evaluating entry points into this crypto fund strategy category, Sekinger describes the opportunity in early-stage layer ones as particularly significant, citing VC-funded projects like Sui and Aptos as examples alongside lesser-known chains like Kaspa, which he describes as having no pre-mine and a market cap that, at the time of the episode, sat around $50 million.

The Four Evaluation Pillars of Sekinger’s Crypto Fund Strategy

Crypto fund strategy that can be systematized is crypto fund strategy that scales. Sekinger outlines four core pillars his team uses when evaluating layer one blockchain investments, and each one is grounded in observable, on-chain data rather than narrative or momentum. These pillars represent the analytical backbone of a crypto fund strategy that has operated across multiple market cycles.

The first pillar is wallet activity, which includes both the number of new wallets being created on a given blockchain and the number of wallets that are actively transacting. Sekinger acknowledges in this episode that new wallet counts can be manipulated, but when viewed as a trend alongside other metrics, they provide a meaningful signal about network adoption. Active wallet counts are harder to manufacture and serve as a more reliable indicator of genuine user engagement within the crypto fund strategy evaluation process.

The second pillar is developer activity. According to Sekinger, developer flow is one of the most important leading indicators available in a structured crypto fund strategy. Developers building decentralized applications on a given blockchain create the user-facing products that drive adoption. Without developer activity, there is no application layer, and without applications, there is no reason for users to engage with the chain. Tracking where developers are migrating, using tools available through public blockchain explorers and development repositories, gives fund managers a forward-looking view of where ecosystem value is likely to concentrate. As Harvard Business Review has noted, the maturation of blockchain as a technology platform depends heavily on the quality and volume of its developer community.

The third pillar is total value locked, commonly abbreviated as TVL. Sekinger directs listeners to DeFi Llama as a resource for tracking TVL across protocols. In the context of his crypto fund strategy, a high TVL relative to market cap signals two things simultaneously: that developers have built applications worth deploying capital into, and that users have sufficient conviction in those applications to commit meaningful assets. A chain with high TVL but a modest market cap can represent a potential inefficiency that a disciplined crypto fund strategy is positioned to identify before broader market awareness catches up.

The fourth pillar is transaction volume relative to market cap. Sekinger describes this comparison as a check against one of the more common traps in crypto investment analysis, assets with large market caps driven by early retail accumulation and staking but with low actual on-chain usage. A crypto fund strategy that weights transaction volume relative to market cap as part of its evaluation framework is essentially asking whether the value assigned to a network reflects real economic activity or simply narrative momentum. Sekinger also notes in this episode that community and social trends have become a factor that cannot be entirely dismissed, citing the Melvin Capital situation with meme stocks as evidence that community-driven dynamics can materially affect even well-constructed investment theses.

Ecosystem Deep Dives as an Extension of Crypto Fund Strategy

Crypto fund strategy does not end at the layer one selection decision. For Sekinger and his team, the layer one analysis is a gateway into a second layer of opportunity: identifying high-potential tokens built on top of blockchains that the fund has already validated. This ecosystem-level approach to crypto fund strategy allows the team to apply the same analytical rigor at a more granular level once the foundational infrastructure thesis is established.

The process, as described in this episode, involves conducting deep dives into the application layer of a given blockchain once the fund has formed conviction about the network itself. If a layer one has strong developer activity, growing wallet counts, and rising TVL, the natural extension of that crypto fund strategy is to identify which decentralized applications within that ecosystem are most likely to drive continued user growth and network value. Those applications often have their own native tokens, which can be evaluated using a subset of the same metrics applied at the layer one level, including user adoption, transaction volume, and the degree to which the application addresses a genuine use case within the ecosystem.

Sekinger uses the analogy of the early internet in this episode to frame this approach for listeners who may be newer to the asset class. Investing in the underlying infrastructure of the internet would have been a foundational position. Investing in companies built on top of that infrastructure, like Amazon, would have been equally compelling. His crypto fund strategy attempts to capture both dimensions: the layer one as infrastructure, and the ecosystem tokens as the application layer built on top of it. According to Bloomberg’s crypto coverage, institutional interest in blockchain infrastructure has accelerated significantly as major exchanges and custodians have entered the space, a development Sekinger references directly in this episode when noting NASDAQ’s custody launch, BlackRock’s partnership with Coinbase, and the Citadel-Schwab-Fidelity crypto exchange initiative.

Reputational Currency and Transparency as Pillars of Crypto Fund Strategy Execution

Crypto fund strategy is not only about what you invest in. It is about how you build and sustain the organizational credibility required to attract and retain capital over time. Sekinger is emphatic on this point throughout the episode, and Ryan Miller reinforces it from his own fifteen-plus years of experience in the field. The concept they converge on is what Sekinger calls reputational currency: the idea that every action a fund manager takes is either building or depleting the trust that investors and the broader market place in them.

Transparency, in Sekinger’s crypto fund strategy framework, is not a soft value. It is a structural advantage. He describes spending two years wrestling with whether to share his personal story publicly, worried that disclosing his history would damage his credibility with prospective investors. What he found instead was the opposite: sharing his story produced a trust response that accelerated capital inflows. Investors told him directly that they wanted to bet on him because they felt they knew him, and knowing him meant believing he would do whatever it took to honor his commitments.

The operational corollary to transparency in Sekinger’s crypto fund strategy is the consistent communication of fund developments, not just returns, but hiring decisions, strategy additions, and operational improvements. He describes the importance of showing investors that the fund is actively working to improve the product, not just riding market conditions. Sharing major developments, such as a new CFO hire, a new algorithmic strategy, or a mean reversion approach being rolled out, signals that the management team is focused on the right priorities. According to The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on hedge fund operations, LP retention is increasingly tied to communication quality and operational transparency rather than performance alone, a dynamic that Sekinger’s approach reflects in practice. His crypto fund strategy treats investor relations as a core operational function, not an afterthought.

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Institutional Adoption Signals That Validate the Crypto Fund Strategy Thesis

Crypto fund strategy built around layer one blockchain analysis gains significant credibility when the largest financial institutions in the world begin making structural moves into the same territory. Sekinger points to several specific developments in this episode that he views as watershed signals for the broader institutional legitimacy of the asset class. These are not speculative trend observations. They are observable market events that any fund manager evaluating a crypto fund strategy should factor into their thesis construction.

Among the developments Sekinger references are NASDAQ’s launch of crypto custody services, BlackRock’s partnership with Coinbase, and the reported initiative by Citadel, Schwab, and Fidelity to establish a dedicated crypto exchange. Each of these moves represents a category of institution, including exchange infrastructure, asset manager, and brokerage, formally committing operational and reputational capital to the digital asset space. For a crypto fund strategy that is already positioned in layer one blockchain assets, these developments represent external validation rather than a new signal, according to Sekinger in this episode.

The practical implication for fund managers, as Sekinger frames it, is that the institutional on-ramp into crypto is being built in real time, and the fund managers who have already constructed a rigorous crypto fund strategy are better positioned to communicate their thesis to a broader LP audience as that on-ramp matures. As Bloomberg’s institutional crypto coverage has documented, the entry of major custodians and asset managers into the digital asset space has materially shifted how allocators evaluate crypto exposure as a portfolio consideration. Sekinger’s point is not that institutional adoption guarantees any specific outcome. It is that the analytical framework his crypto fund strategy employs becomes more legible to institutional audiences as major names enter the space.

Fund Structure and Sequencing Decisions in a Multi-Fund Crypto Fund Strategy

Crypto fund strategy that operates across multiple vehicles under a single management company requires deliberate structural and sequencing decisions that extend well beyond the initial investment thesis. Sekinger describes in this episode how his management company evolved from a single proof-of-concept fund launched in April 2019 into a portfolio of funds with distinct strategies, all operating under the same operational infrastructure. That progression did not happen by accident. It was the product of intentional sequencing and a discipline around not scaling before the foundation was proven.

The sequencing logic Sekinger applies to his crypto fund strategy is worth examining in detail. The first fund was not positioned as a product for external investors. It was a structured vehicle for GP co-investment and track record development. He and his partner invested their own capital, operated the strategy through a full market cycle, and used the results to validate the thesis before opening the fund to outside capital. This approach to proof-of-concept sequencing reflects a principle that institutional LPs consistently reward: the willingness to put conviction on the line before asking others to do the same. As SEC guidance on investment adviser registration makes clear, establishing a verifiable track record is a foundational element of the investment management relationship, and Sekinger’s sequencing reflects that reality in practice.

The operational improvements Sekinger describes sharing with his LP base, including a new CFO hire, additional algorithmic strategies, and a mean reversion approach being added to the fund, reflect the same discipline applied at the communication level of his crypto fund strategy. Each announcement signals to existing and prospective investors that the management team is actively building institutional infrastructure rather than simply managing positions. According to Sekinger in this episode, showing LPs that the operation is improving is as important as showing them that the portfolio is performing, a principle that applies to any fund manager operating in an emerging or complex asset class.

Community Dynamics and Meme Stock Parallels in Crypto Fund Strategy Evaluation

Crypto fund strategy that relies exclusively on on-chain data without accounting for community dynamics is missing a variable that has demonstrated material market impact. Sekinger acknowledges this directly in the episode, noting that even a rigorously constructed analytical framework must incorporate social and community signals as a supplementary factor. His reference point for this acknowledgment is the Melvin Capital situation involving meme stocks, where community-driven buying behavior produced outcomes that fundamentally disrupted well-constructed institutional short positions.

The lesson Sekinger draws from that episode for his own crypto fund strategy is not that fundamentals are irrelevant. It is that community sentiment has become a market force capable of temporarily or structurally overriding fundamental valuation in specific asset classes. Crypto, with its retail-heavy participation and native social infrastructure on platforms like Twitter and Telegram, is particularly susceptible to community-driven price dynamics. A crypto fund strategy that ignores this reality is operating with incomplete information, even if its on-chain metrics are rigorous. As The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the meme stock phenomenon documented, the intersection of social media coordination and market microstructure created conditions that institutional managers had not previously incorporated into their risk frameworks.

Sekinger is careful in this episode not to suggest that community dynamics should drive investment decisions in his crypto fund strategy. Rather, he frames them as a monitoring input that can inform position sizing and timing considerations. The practical application is that a fund manager tracking the four pillars of wallet activity, developer activity, TVL, and transaction volume relative to market cap should also maintain awareness of the social environment surrounding any given asset, particularly in the early-stage layer one category where community conviction often precedes institutional recognition. This layered approach to evaluation reflects the analytical maturity that separates a structured crypto fund strategy from reactive speculation.

Building a Long-Term Crypto Fund Strategy Around Purpose, Patience, and Process

Crypto fund strategy executed over multiple market cycles requires a managerial temperament that is difficult to manufacture and easy to lose. Sekinger returns to this theme near the close of the episode, connecting the personal discipline he developed during his recovery to the operational patience required to run a fund through the volatility inherent in digital asset markets. The through-line in his story is not a single insight or framework. It is a consistent orientation toward process over outcome and long-term credibility over short-term gain.

Ryan Miller reinforces this orientation throughout the conversation, noting that the fund managers who build durable LP bases are typically the ones who treat every investor interaction as a reputational event rather than a transactional one. The referral engine Sekinger describes, asking existing LPs who else they know like themselves who would benefit from the fund, only functions at scale if the underlying investor experience justifies the recommendation. A crypto fund strategy that produces strong on-chain analysis, maintains GP co-investment, communicates operational developments transparently, and delivers consistent investor experiences creates the conditions under which organic referral becomes a structural advantage. According to Forbes’ overview of hedge fund structures, LP retention and referral are among the most reliable indicators of operational quality in alternative fund management.

The broader takeaway from this episode, as Sekinger frames it, is that a crypto fund strategy is ultimately an expression of the person managing it. The analytical pillars, the capital raising infrastructure, the transparency practices, and the structural decisions around fund launch sequencing all trace back to a set of values and a willingness to be publicly accountable for them. For fund managers evaluating how to build or refine their own approach to this asset class, the frameworks Sekinger shares in this episode offer an educational starting point, one grounded in observable data, lived experience, and the kind of reputational discipline that compounds over time across any alternative assets strategy.

About the Guest

Jeff Sekinger is the founder and CEO of Orca Capital and 0percent.com. He holds a finance degree and spent time in asset management at one of the largest banks in the United States before leaving the corporate world in 2018 to launch his own investment and financial education businesses. Orca Capital operates multiple crypto funds under a single management company, and 0percent.com is a financial consulting and education company that helps entrepreneurs access low-interest capital across credit, real estate, and cryptocurrency.

Sekinger has built a substantial personal brand across Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, and has spoken at major events in the crypto and finance space. His fund has grown to more than 230 limited partners across multiple funds. You can find Jeff Sekinger across social platforms at the handle @JeffSekinger.

Topics Covered in This Article

• Crypto fund strategy for alternative asset managers evaluating blockchain investments
• Layer one blockchain analysis as the foundation of a disciplined crypto fund strategy
• The four evaluation pillars used by Orca Capital’s crypto fund strategy: wallet activity, developer activity, TVL, and transaction volume
• How personal branding and content creation drove LP growth in a crypto fund strategy context
• Capital raising frameworks and the R&R principle: reputation and relationships as core assets
• GP co-investment and skin in the game as a signal of conviction in a crypto fund strategy
• Ecosystem-level investing as an extension of the layer one crypto fund strategy
• Transparency, storytelling, and reputational currency in fund manager communications
• Institutional adoption signals: NASDAQ custody, BlackRock, Citadel, and the maturing crypto fund strategy environment
• Referral-driven LP acquisition as a scalable component of a crypto fund strategy capital raising engine