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RockawayX has acquired hedge fund Relayer Capital and will rename it the RockawayX Liquid Opportunities Fund, with founder Austin Barack joining as chief investment officer. The fund will pursue long-short strategies across liquid crypto tokens and digital asset-related equities, and RockawayX is reportedly targeting $150 million in capital. Relayer’s liquid strategy returned roughly 70% year-to-date through Aug. 21 and outperformed an equal-weighted basket of Bitcoin, Ether and Solana by 86%. CEO Viktor Fischer said current market conditions favor active investors, citing real revenues and strong fundamentals among some crypto businesses despite persistent market inefficiencies. The acquisition expands RockawayX’s U.S. presence and adds a trading team with a track record of outperforming major cryptocurrencies. The deal follows a crypto rally that briefly pushed Bitcoin near $81,000 before it pulled back to around $79,064.
Key Elements
Crypto investment firm RockawayX has acquired hedge fund Relayer Capital, adding an actively managed long-short strategy to a platform that oversees roughly $2 billion in assets while expanding its investment business in the United States. The acquired vehicle will be renamed the RockawayX Liquid Opportunities Fund, with Relayer founder Austin Barack joining as chief investment officer.
The fund will focus on identifying undervalued liquid crypto tokens and digital asset-related equities rather than relying primarily on rising cryptocurrency prices to generate returns. RockawayX is reportedly seeking to raise $150 million for the vehicle, though the company has not publicly confirmed that figure. Neither party disclosed the acquisition price or announced a fundraising timeline.
Relayer’s liquid strategy generated a net return of approximately 70% year-to-date through Aug. 21 The strategy also outperformed an equal-weighted basket of Bitcoin, Ether and Solana by 86% over the same period. Those figures give the firm a strong performance record to present to potential investors as it seeks additional capital, and they help explain why RockawayX chose to acquire an existing strategy rather than build a long-short operation from the ground up
The fund uses longs, shorts and pair trades based on fundamental assessments of tokens, with the ability to reduce exposure to overall crypto market moves. That structure matters in a sector where simply holding Bitcoin or other major tokens can produce large gains during rallies but substantial drawdowns when sentiment reverses. An active long-short fund has more flexibility to seek returns from differences in valuation rather than depending entirely on the direction of the market.
RockawayX chief executive Viktor Fischer said current market conditions favor the approach. “There are now crypto businesses with real revenues and strong fundamentals that we can underwrite, yet the market is still inefficient and misprices them,” he said. “That is a great setup for active investors.”
The acquisition follows renewed strength across digital assets. Bitcoin recently recorded its largest weekly gain in dollar terms before pulling back to around $79,064 after briefly trading near $81,000. Barack believes the market has entered a more favorable phase.
“I believe we have seen clear signs that crypto markets have bottomed,” he said. “The current setup presents opportunities similar to the emergence from prior bear markets in 2020 and 2023 when we saw major positive price re-ratings.”
RockawayX argues that the investable universe has matured enough for a different approach. Some digital asset businesses now generate measurable revenue, while listed companies with direct exposure to crypto provide another group of securities that can be compared using more traditional financial metrics. This can create opportunities for pair trades, where a manager buys an asset viewed as undervalued while shorting another considered expensive. The goal is to capture the difference between the two rather than make a pure bet on whether the entire crypto market rises.
Such strategies may also appeal to investors who want crypto exposure without accepting the full volatility of holding Bitcoin, Ether or Solana outright. Their effectiveness, however, depends heavily on security selection, short execution and risk management.
The larger question is whether Relayer’s 2026 returns can be repeated. Crypto markets have experienced sharp changes in volatility and direction this year, creating opportunities for active managers but also increasing the risk that trades based on relative valuations reverse quickly. A sustained rally can also make it harder for long-short managers to prove that returns come from asset selection rather than simply benefiting from rising crypto prices.
For RockawayX, the test will be whether the fund’s 2026 performance attracts enough institutional capital to build the renamed vehicle toward its reported $150 million target. If it does, the acquisition could give the firm a larger role in a part of crypto investing that relies less on passive token exposure and more on identifying valuation differences across tokens and crypto-linked equities.
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Source: finance.biggo.com