Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies exploded into the public consciousness in late 2017 as the year-long rally saw bitcoin price pump from below $1,000 to almost $20,000 at year-end. With rising prices and rising public awareness, there were over 200 crypto funds launched in 2017, more than triple the number of funds launched in 2016.

Compared to the 224 crypto funds launched in 2017, 2018 showed another unprecedented growth to 239 despite the bitcoin sluggish of the year, according to Crypto Fund Research. However, the report expects the number of funds launched in 2019 to slow down from the rapid pace in 2017 and 2018, to a projected 140. While they believe that more existing hedge funds or VC firms will incorporate cryptocurrencies in their portfolios.

The research points out that half of these crypto investment funds are small with less than $10 million in assets, and 41 funds have over $100 million in assets with the top 10 including Arrington XRP, BlockTower Capital, Brian Kelly Capital Management, Digital Currency Group, Fenbushi Capital, Galaxy Digital Assets Fund, MetaStable Capital, Pantera Capital, Passport Capital, Polychain Capital and Tunlan Capital.

Among the top ten cryptocurrency funds which manage billions of dollar worth assets, two are China-based companies. Fenbushi. They are Fenbushi Capital and Tunlan Capital. As one of the most active venture capital institution, Fenbushi has invested more than 50 startups covering almost all stages of the blockchain industry, including big names like Circle, Factom, Matrix, Vechain, etc; Tunlan Capital was tasked with running a major blockchain fund ($1.6 billion) with 30 percent of the funding from the local government.

It is notable that almost half of the crypto investment funds are based in the United States, followed by China/Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Germany, which are places home to traditional hedge funds. New crypto funds are also beginning to pop up in Eastern Europe and Russia, as well in offshore jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands, according to the report.

The crypto fund industry has been growing rapidly, both in the launch of dedicated crypto funds and crypto portfolios added to existing funds. With more high-net-worth individuals and institutions increasingly showing interest in crypto assets fueled by big companies’ crypto projects like Facebook’s Libra and central banks’ digital currency like the case in China, more money is flowing into these crypto hedge funds.