Lantern Ventures, a London-based trading firm founded by some former members of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, is closing its funding after seven years of operation, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The crypto investment firm is in the process of returning capital to investors and is closing its external funds, a person familiar with the situation said. According to a second person, several hedge fund employees are likely to lose their jobs.
The company is said to have been in talks with potential buyers. Other alternatives include relaunching under a family office structure.
At its peak, Lantern, led by cryptocurrency trader and former Alameda co-founder Tara Mac Aulay, had more than $600 million in assets under management. Mac Aulay declined to comment.
An affiliated company called Pharos USD Fund SP, an investment fund based in the Cayman Islands, was listed as Celsius’s largest individual creditor at the start of the crypto lender’s bankruptcy proceedings in 2022, with a claim of around $80 million.
Before becoming a full-time trader, Mac Aulay was the CEO of the Center for Effective Altruism, a philanthropic project that FTX boss Bankman-Fried was also aligned with.
Lantern was also founded on philanthropic principles, with 50% of the founder’s profits donated to high-impact charitable causes.
The Oct. 10 cryptocurrency market crash made institutional fundraising a more difficult task these days, many people said.
