Protos Cryptocurrency Management will invest in digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, as well as other digital assets and ICOs.
SUMMARY.
- Project name: Protos
- Token symbol:PRTS.
- Website: https://protos.tokenhub.com
- Whitepaper: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/protoscrypto/Protos_SummaryPDF_Digital.pdf
- Soft cap: $50M.
- Hard cap: Details of the hard cap to be released in the Offering Memorandum.
- Conversion rate: Each token will cost $1.00.
- Minimum investment: You must invest at least the amount of one Protos token to participate.
- Accepted currencies: BTC, ETH and USD. Subscribers for PRTS Tokens using USD must subscribe for a minimum of $25,000 in PRTS Tokens.
- Presale: $250,000 minimum investment for US residents and $50,000 minimum investment for those resident outside of the US.
- White list: Entry on the presale list guarantees an allocation, subject to the receipt of funds and regulatory considerations. In order to join the presale list please send an email message to [email protected]
- ERC20 token: Yes.
- Telegram channel: https://t.me/ProtosCrypto
KEY DATES.
October, 9th 2017: Presale starts.
October 16th, 2017: Presale ends.
October 17th 2017: Public sale starts.
November 17th 2017: Public sale ends.
November 2017: Token distribution.
November 2018: Trading for US Reg D Investors.
PROJECT OVERVIEW.
Protos Cryptocurrency Management will invest in digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, as well as other digital assets and ICOs. Protos will be capitalized solely by proceeds raised in an ICO. You trade USD, BTC or ETH for the PRTS Token. An experienced team then trades established tokens and invests in new ones.
Protos invests in blockchain protocols and believe they will be the foundational infrastructure and biggest applications in the third major computing revolution.
“The first revolution was the PC, the second was the Internet, and we feel the third is now distributed applications based on Bitcoin-like cryptographic technology,” said co-founder Thomas Kineshanko. “To invest in the first two computing revolutions, you [were] required to buy shares in companies, but to invest in the blockchain revolution, you have to purchase tokens.”
BACKGROUND.
Blockchain assets emerged as a new asset class lately and are traded frequently on various online exchanges. Bitcoin is the most prominent example and the most valuable with a market cap of more than 68 billion USD. The total market cap now exceeds 143 billion and includes more than 1000 different blockchain assets. The total trading volume exceeds 2 billion USD per day.
This market has seen tremendous interest as some of these assets have increased over 10 times in a short period of time. For example, Ethereum has increased more than 24 times on 6/30/17 compared to one year ago. Hence an investor of 1000 USD a year ago would now own Ethereum worth 24’000 USD and could buy himself a new car.
But that interest comes with risk. Most of the blockchains are released by startups at an early stage leading to significant risk in investing in this new asset class as some of the startups will undoubtedly fail. The risk doesn’t end there, as some of the assets have very limited liquidity, which results in massive price increases and sometimes even larger price drops.
Additionally, one could fear that the blockchain bubble bursts. In particular, the risk — measured by volatility — in this new asset class is far bigger than in the classic asset classes like equities or bonds. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have a volatility of more than 100% over the last year, whereas the S&P 500 Index has a long run volatility of around 16%.
What if you had a full-time team of proven crypto investors and technologists to grow your Blockchain investments and manage risks for you?
ENTER PROTOS.
Protos is an investment fund that invests in pre-ICO and ICO tokens, and trades established tokens like bitcoin using advanced quantitative strategies. It’s founders have 13 years combined experience investing in crypto, have managed funds/proprietary investments of over $1B, have founded and sold 3 tech startups for proceeds of 400M and 1 investment bank at a valuation of $250 million +.
The Protos fund’s investments will broadly fall into three buckets: active investment, arbitrage and ICO investment. According to Protos, their active investment strategy involves making what are essentially momentum bets on market price movements. The arbitrage strategy will revolve around purchasing and selling tokens on different exchanges as close together as possible, in order to benefit from price discrepancies across exchanges.
Since liquidity is an issue in token markets, Protos plans to focus on trading the largest tokens, especially where the market capitalization is above $1 billion.
Philipp Kallerhoff, who will run trading operations at the Protos venture, explained it will also build a database, where they can analyze various token metrics, with the goal of building fundamental measures for data-driven trading strategies. Such tools, he reasons, will become more valuable as the market calms down and large returns in more developed assets become less likely.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Protos’ hedge fund works in a straightforward way. Protos will invest in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin, as well as existing and new blockchain-based digital tokens. Then, as a purchaser of Protos Tokens, you can earn returns based on the investment returns that Protos earns by investing in tokens.
We’ve seen other cryptocurrency investment funds and hedge funds take a similar approach. By buying a Protos token, you’re effectively investing in a fund that carries a basket of digital currencies. Instead of needing to purchase those tokens individually, you can purchase a single token and ride the performance of the market.
Protos will also take actions to maximize investment returns for its users, buying and selling cryptocurrencies according to the market.
PROTOS TOKEN.
An ERC20 smart contract digital token representing an indirect fractional non-voting economic interest in the sole Class A share in Protos, a fund investing in digital tokens, cryptocurrency and other appropriate crypto investments
Protos is not a utility token. Rather, buying a Protos token is an investment in a security issued under the exemption from registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Regulation D’s Rule 506(c).
The cryptocurrency hedge fund will be following in the steps of VC firm Blockchain Capital who launched the first token designed specifically as a security, the BCAP token.
Ico.
The announcement for the ICO was on August 22nd, 2017. The ICO presale commences on October 9 and the offering launch on October 17.
More details of the offering will be disclosed in the Offering Memorandum, which is expected to be published on or before October 17, 2017 at https://protos.tokenhub.com.
Use of funds.
Protos plans to invest 30% of funds to promising new, seed stage, blockchain protocols; while 70% of funds are actively managed.
If there are realizations in the portfolio of Protos, then the funds received from such realizations shall be treated as follows:
- A minimum of 50% of any such funds are expected to be used in reinvestment into additional portfolio investments (save where such funds have been held by Protos for more than 18 months in which case they may be used per clause 2 below); and
- A minimum of 10% of any such funds shall be distributed to Protos solely for use to repurchase PRTS Tokens on the open market. All PRTS Tokens repurchased by Protos will be cancelled, thereby increasing each remaining PRTS Token holder’s indirect fractional non-voting economic interest in Protos’ sole Class A share.
Exchanges.
The Protos team is working closely with a number of Exchanges and will keep interested parties updated via their Telegram channel and Email (if you have registered on the website) on the progress.
TEAM.
The Protos team consists of established investors, traders, technology entrepreneurs and advisors. The team has deep knowledge of cryptocurrency technology, tooling, and markets. The principal team will actively manage the funds available for investment into blockchain protocols as well as deploy their proprietary active trading strategies. Additionally, their advisors will serve as a resource for the Protos principals to engage in involved discussion and advice regarding their investment strategies, criteria and sourcing.
ABOUT ARGON INVESTMENT LLC.
The offering is being managed by Argon Investment Management LLC, a unit of the Argon Group, a Los Angeles-based investment bank specializing in the field of cryptocurrencies and the ICO market, under the Regulation D Section 506(c) exemption from registration promulgated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
ROADMAP.
PROS.
- Protos will be a data driven cryptocurrency hedge fund. Protos will build a robust database of digital token and crypto currency market data to create advanced trading signals in the future.
- The founders of Protos have significant experience in the funds and cryptocurrency space. They have over a decade of combined experience investing in cryptocurrencies, and Protos will be their third vehicle investing in cryptocurrencies.
- Unlike traditional hedge fund and venture capital LP investments, Protos has no lock-up beyond the statutory 12-month holding period under Reg D, and is expected to be liquid once traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Protos intends as part of its investment strategy vision to develop a multi-manager strategy where data scientists in the community may contribute to and be rewarded for trading strategies.
CONS.
- A Regulation D private placement means that the purchasers must be accredited investors, which, in the U.S., means that you must have a minimum net worth of $1,000,000, or have earned $200,000 a year for the last two years. Restricting the list of potential investors in a token offering to those who meet the accredited investor requirements restricts the number of people who can purchase the token.
- Limited information is known about the hedge fund so far, aside from its broad goals and its management team.
CONCLUSION.
Protos are unlocking the second major investing wave in crypto and once data on the market exists, we should see an explosion in trading strategies just as it did in stock trading. Protos are driving this second wave with the goal of benefiting token holders through digital tokens and crypto trading strategies.
