Cryptech World, an investment firm acquired by private equity investor Berkeley Assets in June last year, is on a mission to bring blockchain and cryptocurrencies to retail investors.
Omar Jackson (pictured), director of Cryptech World, explains that the company’s USD50 million fund is 80 per cent invested in venture capital projects based on cryptocurrencies and blockchain and 20 per cent invested in cryptocurrencies themselves.
Performance year to date is 40 per cent up in the cryptocurrency portfolio and 70 per cent up in the venture capital segment. The next few weeks will see Cryptech World offering a venture capital only fund.
“Cryptech World is focused on educating the retail market,” Jackson says. “Everyday people who wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to become exposed can now take part in the crypto world and make profits from it, whereas before it was only available for institutions and investment banks.”
Jackson describes blockchain as secure, fast and smart and predicts that it will transforms how we all run our lives over the next decade.
The consultancy side of the Cryptech World business is now looking at using blockchain and crypto in sports, particularly football, boxing and tennis.
“Football clubs and other sports have got in touch with us asking how to incorporate crypto and blockchain into their businesses,” Jackson says. “People are always looking to embrace new technology because of the speed efficiency and saving in overheads offered by blockchain. Large football institutions can utilise the technology to become faster and smarter.”
Jackson says that they are also engaging with fans and players.
“They have tens and hundreds of millions of fans and it gives them an opportunity to engage with their fan base and their players.”
French football club Paris St Germain has recently issued their own fan tokens, encouraging engagement with fans who can use them to purchase merchandise, tickets or win prizes, all through a blockchain based technology.
Jackson believes that going forward, football player transfers will be conducted through blockchain. “When a player is transferred from one club to another, there is a huge amount of data and legalities that have to be completed. With the peer-to-peer system on blockchain you could simply move all the data from that digital ledger to another in a matter of a second,” Jackson says. He also believes that the payment could move swiftly through cryptocurrency, saving huge amounts of paperwork and costs.
Jackson cites the fax issue that hit a potential sale of footballer David De Gea to Real Madrid four years ago. “It didn’t go through because a fax didn’t get to Real Madrid in time – it was a couple of minutes past the cut-off. The fax is an outdated system and the fact that the authorities are still using a fax system is a problem that can be avoided by utilising better digital technology.”
Cryptech World has also had interest from the boxing world and the tennis community.
“Boxing is a similar environment where they need to engage the fans and on fight nights they need to control certain elements such as ticket sales. Using tokens would make it much harder for ticket touts and illegal ticket sales,” Jackson says. “The tokenisation of tickets would make it more secure.”
The stability of cryptocurrencies is a long term issue, Jackson says. He feels that it will take 24 to 36 months for market regulators to bring in a little light regulation that will control the market a little.
“People will not take to cryptocurrencies as an alternative payment option until there is more stability,” he says.
