Tricks Of A Crypto Trader

How did an It salesman and his buddies turn a bitcoin-trading sideline into the hottest crypto-asset management firm in Asia?

- Jeff Kauflin

On a damp Tuesday night in March, some 200 people crammed into a bar in San Francisco’s Four Seasons Hotel to discuss the buzziest topic in finance and tech: cryptocurrencies. The party had been organized just two days earlier, yet in they poured, mostly Asian men in their 20s and 30s, carrying iPhone X’s and big ideas for how digital currencies might reshape the future and make them rich. They were lured by the chance to rub elbows with the latest overnight success story in crypto, FBG Capital of Beijing.

To the crowd assembled, FBG’s fame stems from turning $20 million into $200 million in a year. In fact, ten months before this soiree, the group of traders behind the firm didn’t yet have a name for their company. Today it counts Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital among its blue-chip investors and is one of the biggest crypto-asset managers in Asia. They have landed in America and are seeking investors.

FBG’s approach has three pillars: Invest like a venture capitalist in initial coin offerings (ICOs), trade on news and events by moving in and out of tokens rapidly and, critically, exploit insider relationships and marketing hype to ensure profitability. The firm’s rise speaks volumes about the anything-goes world of cryptocurrencies, where the stated ideals of democratization are a joke and being an insider is the surest path to riches.