Mark Smith
Castle Funds is an investment firm that has been managing funds invested in Bitcoin and other digital currencies since 2017.
Actively Managed Funds:
We manage active portfolios across spot, futures, and options markets.
Passively Managed Funds:
We offer secure, liquid, and low-cost access to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Tell us about yourself?
Mr. Eberle is the President and Chief Investment Officer of the General Partner. Mr. Eberle has extensive experience in portfolio management, derivatives trading and risk management. Prior to Castle Analytics he had been the Managing Member of 3 private investment funds which invest in equities, options, exchange traded funds and futures.
He began his career as an options market maker for Group One Trading LP and a few years later, became a partner at Oppenheimer, Noonan, Weiss, LLC (“ONW”). Mr. Eberle was instrumental in the negotiation of the sale of ONW to SLK-Hull Derivatives LLC, which was subsequently acquired by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (“Goldman”). At Goldman, he served as the Co-Head of Trading on the Pacific Exchange and was a member of the U.S. Equity Derivatives Risk Management Committee. Mr. Eberle has an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
It is the same thing that I tell our team now, keep innovating! The cryptocurrency space is developing at such a rapid pace you have to be ready to pivot at all times. There are huge opportunities you just have to be ready to move.
What problem does your business solve?
We offer accredited investors access to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with professional risk management and highly secured third party custody of the assets.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
In 2017 a group of friends wanted to invest in bitcoin but getting exposure to this asset was intimidating due to the technology and risks around loss. We formed a partnership and hired technology specialists to build a secure platform to monitor and safeguard our assets. As word spread about what we were doing other investors asked to join our funds.
What is your magic sauce?
Our people really set us apart from the competition. The technology team that build our trading and fund management platform has many years of experience at companies such as Wells Fargo and Samsung. Our investment team includes people from Goldman Sachs and Blackrock. This vast experience lets us bridge the gap from traditional finance to this new exciting cryptocurrency and Defi world.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We are working on different fund formats and strategies. Currently we are incubating three new strategies. We do this with our own capital in order to establish a strong track record and in order to learn the nuances before we start accepting outside capital.
We will be launching a new fund in June details of which will be released shortly before. There are some many opportunities in this new field and we will have to grow substantially to keep pace.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Due to the nature of the type of investment funds that we manage we are limited in the types of marketing efforts that we can employ so we rely heavily on word of mouth to attract new investors. We believe that this will work itself out over time as regulations become more clearly defined.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We are looking to speak with accredited investors, investment advisors and institutional investors who want to learn more about cryptocurrency investing The best way to reach us is to inquire through our website at www.castlefunds.com or by contacting Peter Eberle at [email protected]
CASTLE ANALYTICS LLC IS A MEMBER OF NFA AND IS SUBJECT TO NFA’S REGULATORY OVERSIGHT AND EXAMINATIONS. HOWEVER, YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT NFA DOES NOT HAVE REGULATORY OVERSIGHT AUTHORITY OVER UNDERLYING OR SPOT VIRTUAL CURRENCY PRODUCTS OR TRANSACTIONS OR VIRTUAL CURRENCY EXCHANGES, CUSTODIANS OR MARKETS.
