Arthur Hayes’ family office, Maelstrom, targets $250 million for new private equity fund

Arthur Hayes’ family office, Maelstrom, is raising upwards of $250 million for a new private equity fund. The fund is looking to acquire as many as six medium-sized crypto firms.

Maelstrom co-founder and Managing Partner Akshat Vaidya said the firm will invest between $40 million and $75 million per year with an emphasis on blockchain service providers, including trading infrastructure and analytics startups, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday.

According to Vaidya on X, the goal of Maelstrom Equity Fund I is to "provide founders cash-heavy, 'clean' exits at reasonable valuations" while also boosting the links between crypto and TradFi.

"Capital allocators (think pension funds, family offices, etc.) want to deploy into crypto-focused funds *at scale* (9-figure+ sums), but current options e.g. "scaled", large crypto VC funds deliver poor risk-adjusted returns (we’re LPs in many; we know)," Vaidya wrote.

The crypto industry has seen a rising wave of acquisitions and mergers amid a rebounding market following the FTX collapse. Beginning with Stripe’s $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge in late 2024, the sector has seen increasingly large bets, like Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road and Coinbase’s $2.9 billion deal with Deribit. 

On Thursday, for instance, the well-capitalized Ripple said it would spend $1 billion to acquire the treasury management firm GTreasury.

Maelstrom’s new fund will structure each deal as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) targeting cash-generating businesses, Vaidya said. In addition to Vaidya and Hayes, the fund is tapping former Haveli Investments fund manager Adam Schlegel to direct investments.

Hayes, co-founder of the Bitmex derivatives exchange, launched Maelstrom into public view in 2023. The firm blends elements of venture capital and private equity by targeting "a long-term portfolio," and also invests in public markets, according to its website.

"We back high-conviction opportunities ranging from early-stage equity and token investments to private and public market positions, bringing to each cap table the experience, relationships, and resources of having built one of the industry’s first profitable unicorns from the ground up," the Maelstrom website reads.

Maelstrom also manages a bitcoin grant program to fund the development of the first and largest cryptocurrency.