Billionaire Steven Cohen Invests in New Cryptocurrency Firm Radkl

Steven Cohen has been able to reap the benefits from the many investments he has made. Last year, Cohen purchased the New York Mets MLB team for over $2 billion and became a majority owner. The Mets are currently the 47th most valuable sports team in the world, according to Forbes.

Cohen's hedge fund firm, Point72 Asset Management LP, was founded in 2014. He has been investing in startups and other companies since then. The firm owns shares in some of the top companies currently including Amazon, Uber, Visa, Facebook, and Nike. Amazon holds the most weight in the firm’s portfolio with over 148,000 shares, which values it at over $500 million.

Earlier this year, Cohen’s firm suffered nearly 15 percent in losses stemming from a massive short squeeze of GameStop shares. According to Reuters, out of the $19 billion in assets Point72 holds, it held a large investment in Melvin Capital Management—a firm founded by Cohen’s former protege Gabriel Plotkin.

Melvin Capital had a significant trade going against GameStop, and suffered monumental losses after the stock went through the short squeeze. Since his firm suffered that loss, Radkl might be able to help Cohen recover from his losses.

Launched by partners of the global trading firm GTS, Radkl is a quantitative trading firm that will specialize in digital assets. Quantitative trading involves using mathematical strategies and models to determine trading opportunities. GTS CEO and co-founder Ari Rubenstein said in an interview that Radkl’s trading activities will include electronic market-making on crypto exchanges and bilateral trades of digital assets with other firms.

With the launch announced on Sept. 14, Radkl says that it expects to start trading in the fourth quarter. According to Business Wire, trading operations will be led by Ryan Sheftel, a partner at GTS who is well-versed in trading and investing. Cohen will be investing in Radkl himself and not through his Point72 firm. He won't be involved in the firm’s daily operations. On Radkl's website, it mentions that it will be involved in the centralized (CeFi) and decentralized (DeFi) spaces of cryptocurrency.

RECUR, an NFT firm that focuses on developing NFTs for sport and entertainment fans, has raised $55 million in a Series A funding. Along with Cohen, RECUR has received investments from Gary Vaynerchuk, Jason Derulo, and many more, according to PR Newswire. Cohen was one of the leaders in managing the Series A funding. He will join the firm’s board of directors. The Mets might become a partner of the firm because of the sports similarities.

RECUR has already made several partnerships with companies involved in the collegiate sports industry. RECUR partnered with CLC, which is the leading collegiate trademark licensing company in the U.S. The company also struck a licensing deal with the Pacific 12 Conference (Pac 12). RECUR will be creating NFTs and other college collectibles based on various sports moments. To help with the creation of those NFTs, RECUR launched a company called NFTU.