Karatage, a leading London-based proprietary hedge fund specializing in digital assets and emerging technologies, has appointed Shane O’Callaghan as Senior Partner and Head of Institutional Strategy.
O’Callaghan joins from Dutch market maker IMC Trading, where he was employed as global head of institutional partnerships and digital asset sales for the last year.
Before joining IMC, O’Callaghan worked at crypto trading platform Portofino Technologies as global head of business development, as well as head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for now-defunct crypto lender BlockFi.
“Shane didn’t join because it was safe. He joined because the opportunity is rare: to build something bold, aggressive and truly disruptive from the inside out,” Marius Barnett, co-founder and CEO of Karatage, said in emailed comments. “He’s stepping away from elite leadership positions to help us execute at a higher level, move faster and raise the bar in everything we do.”
Karatage is a hedge fund that invests in digital assets, crypto-native investment funds and companies building infrastructure, products or services for the blockchain economy. Founded in 2017, the company emerged at the beginning of the growth of institutional investing in digital assets and has remained active throughout multiple market cycles.
“At Karatage, we’re not interested in incremental growth or polished ambition. We’re here to create a dominant force – and Shane materially enhances our ability to do just that. This is the start of a much bigger chapter,” Barnett added.
The fund generally takes a thematic approach, supporting technologies and companies that it believes could have a structural impact on finance and the broader economy, including blockchain networks, decentralized finance (DeFi) and related services.
Karatage is known for combining investments in liquid tokens with longer-term bets on companies and managers operating in the crypto space.
“The company’s unique combination of proprietary capital, technical depth and strategic vision is exactly what the market needs today,” O’Callaghan said in emailed comments. “I am delighted to join Marius, Stephen and the entire team to contribute to the firm’s next phase of global institutional expansion,” he added.
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