In 2013, Dan Morehead made a decisive pivot from a distinguished Wall Street career to focus exclusively on the nascent cryptocurrency market. Drawing on his extensive experience as a trader at Goldman Sachs and Head of Macro Trading at Tiger Management, Morehead re-envisioned Pantera Capital—a hedge fund he founded in 2003—to become one of the first institutional investment firms dedicated to bitcoin and blockchain assets.

At a time when bitcoin traded at just $65, Morehead recognized its transformative potential and recruited influential peers from his Princeton network, including Fortress Investment Group’s Pete Briger and Mike Novogratz, to join the bold venture. Their collective conviction was quickly tested; after an initial surge, the fund endured Bitcoin’s first major crash sparked by the Mt Gox exchange collapse, which erased 85% of the currency’s value. Despite skepticism from traditional markets, Morehead persisted, doggedly evangelizing the merits of digital assets to institutional investors worldwide.

Building through adversity proved prescient. Pantera Capital introduced the first U.S.-based cryptocurrency fund and later expanded into dedicated blockchain venture investments. Over the subsequent decade, Pantera’s flagship Bitcoin Fund achieved returns exceeding 86,000% and helped catalyze institutional interest in digital assets. The firm now manages approximately $4.8 billion across passive, hedge, and venture strategies, maintaining a disciplined focus on blockchain technologies and early-stage opportunities.

Morehead’s foresight and resilience underscore the asymmetric opportunities presented by disruptive technologies. As the digital asset ecosystem continues to mature, Pantera’s portfolio spans projects across decentralized finance and infrastructure, supporting innovation at the forefront of the crypto economy. Industry observers now recognize Morehead and his early supporters as instrumental architects of crypto’s institutional adoption, their journey a compelling case study in conviction-led investing.