Yale University Said to Invest in $400 Million Paradigm Crypto Fund

Update (13:00, Oct. 5, 2018): CNBC is also reporting that Yale’s chief investment officer, David Swensen, has also invested for the university in Andreessen Horowitz’s $300 million crypto fund, which closed in June. The news source also cites anonymous sources.

Has Yale University just plunged into the turbulent waters of the cryptocurrency space?

That’s a big yes, according to an anonymous source cited in a Bloomberg report Friday. While yet to be officially confirmed, the Ivy League institution is said to have invested in a major crypto fund set up by Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase co-founder; Matt Huang, a former partner at Sequoia Capital; and Charles Noyes, who previously worked at Pantera Capital.

The report suggests that Yale, which boasts second-largest endowment among educational institutions globally (valued at $25.4 billion in 2016, says Wikipedia), was among investors that helped the Paradigm raise $400 million in the last several months.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Huang left Sequoia to join Ersham in setting up the new fund in June. Sequoia also invested in Paradigm according to that article.

Paradigm aims to invest in early-stage cryptocurrency, blockchain and exchange projects, Noyes told Bloomberg in June.

Today’s report said that the scale of Yale’s investment in the fund was unknown and that the university had not responded when contacted for comment.

The Yale endowment has grown to its huge current valuation from an initial fund of £562 donated by founder Elihu Yale in 1718. Harvard University has the most valuable endowment in the world currently, Wikipedia indicates.

With a reputation for seeking out for seeking out more unconventional investments, Yale’s endowment has generated yearly returns of around 12.6 percent since the mid-’80s, the online knowledge source says.

Yale image via Shutterstock

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