RockawayX seeks $150 million for new liquid-token hedge fund
VC & Fundraising ·
The Prague-based crypto investor, which oversees roughly $2 billion, is raising capital after absorbing Relayer Capital to chase undervalued tokens and crypto-linked stocks.
RockawayX has folded Relayer Capital into its operations and is now working to secure $150 million for a fresh vehicle dedicated to publicly tradable crypto assets, according to Forbes, which cited people familiar with the matter. Austin Barack, who founded Relayer and previously worked as a partner at CoinFund, is staying on to run the new fund, which will target what the firm calls undervalued tokens and crypto-related equities.
The timing stands apart from a broader trend among crypto venture firms. Paradigm and Framework Ventures, both based in San Francisco, have widened their focus to include artificial intelligence and robotics investments. RockawayX is moving the opposite direction, doubling down on crypto trading strategies rather than diversifying away from them.
That bet appears rooted in results. Relayer's holdings in Hyperliquid, a perpetual-futures exchange whose token has climbed 219% this year to a market value near $18 billion, and Venice AI, a decentralized AI platform whose token has surged 1,006% and now carries a valuation above $800 million, helped the fund post a roughly 70% return in 2026 — well ahead of bitcoin, ether and solana. Those three major cryptocurrencies have each gained more than 20% in the past week alone, a rally that has made the sector's renewed liquid-fund push look less like a contrarian move.
The Relayer deal extends a pattern of RockawayX acquisitions beyond its original venture-capital business. In February it took over management of noncustodial crypto vaults, smart-contract-based pools that deploy user deposits into yield strategies; those vaults have since drawn more than $200 million. Separately, The Block reported that Relayer has been rebranded as the RockawayX Liquid Opportunities Fund under the acquisition.
Not every expansion has gone smoothly. A planned merger with solana treasury firm Solmate fell apart, and RBCH Ltd., RockawayX's investment vehicle and Solmate's largest outside shareholder, sued Solmate board members in New York state court in June over alleged self-dealing. Solmate has countersued, accusing RockawayX and its chief executive of issuing misleading financial statements and running a campaign that hurt its valuation; RockawayX has denied the claims as retaliatory. Both lawsuits remain unresolved, as does the final size and close date of the new $150 million fund.