A former portfolio manager at Steve Cohen's Point72 is setting out to launch a $50 million crypto hedge fund

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  • Travis Kling, a former portfolio manager at Steve Cohen's Point72 hedge fund, is starting his own cryptocurrency venture, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.
     

  • Kling, who left Point72 in December 2017, "fell down the crypto rabbit hole," his LinkedIn profile says.
     

  • He is launching a $25 million fund this summer with the hope of raising another $25 million by year end.

Count Travis Kling as the latest Wall Streeter to turn to the world of crypto for their next venture.

Kling, a former portfolio manager at Steve Cohen's Point72 hedge fund, left the firm to start a cryptocurrency hedge fund, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider. Kling is aiming to raise $25 million for the fund, which will apply traditional hedge fund investment strategies to the cryptocurrency market.

The market for digital coins, which took off in 2017, has fueled the creation of more than 220 hedge funds, according to data analytics provider Autonomous NEXT. Very few, however, have been founded by folks from the asset management world. And most only manage a couple million dollars.

The market for crypto hedge funds has been under pressure as the underlying digital coin market continues to shed billions. At least nine crypto funds have shut their doors this year, Bloomberg reported.

"New capital has slowed, even for a higher-profile fund like ours," Kyle Samani, cofounder of Multicoin Capital, a crypto fund that manages $50 million, told Bloomberg.

Still, Kling has already locked down seed investments for his fund and is actively pitching more investors. It is set to go live this summer.

Kling and his two partners expect the fund to manage $50 million by year's end, a personal familiar with the matter told Business Insider. The firm is a bidirectional, multistrat-focused fund. They plan on making a public announcement about the fund in the coming weeks.

Kling, who worked at Steve Cohen's Point72 from 2015 to 2017, joined the firm from Magnetar Capital.