Felix Hartmann, X Hall of Flame – Cointelegraph Magazine
2024.09.10 13:12
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You might not have to wait until the presidential election wraps up for a big crypto rally fueled by Donald Trump, according to Hartmann Capital founder and crypto content creator Felix Hartmann.
“The moment the odds of Trump winning the election become overwhelming, which can happen at different times … I would expect the crypto market to rip,” Hartmann tells Hall of Flame.
“It will be the moment we realize that we are not going to get sued to death, there might be some path to this industry becoming self-sustaining, and becoming more just hype and narratives.”
But he sees a very grim outlook for the crypto industry if Kamala Harris ends up taking the top spot.
“If Kamala wins I think we could be in for the longest winter we’ve ever seen, because it is four years. There will be less venture capital into new projects, market makers have already been quitting,” he claims.
Hartmann, now 29, started his own hedge fund Hartmann Capital in 2018 at the age of 23 after a multi-billionaire promised him millions to trade crypto.
But in the end, the deal never went through.
While consulting for an investment bank, he had dinner with the billionaire founder, who saw him as a “young prodigy” for introducing crypto to the firm and developing tokenization strategies.
“Why don’t we give this guy $10 million to start trading for us,” Hartmann recalls him saying.
Hartmann launches hedge fund as Bitcoin plummets hard
Hartmann went home, Googled how to start a hedge fund, and spent $25,000 on legal fees to get everything set up.
By the time everything was sorted out, it took several months, and Bitcoin’s price had plummeted by 50% from about $20,000 to just under $10,000 by mid-2018.
The drop was enough to scare off the billionaire and his team.
Hartmann, against the advice of his friends and family, pursued the venture anyway, despite Bitcoin going down to around $3,000 by the end of 2018.
Flash forward two years to 2020, and he’s got Mark Yusko, founder of Morgan Creek Management, knocking on his door.
(X/Mark Yusko)
“He tweeted at me saying hey Felix I’m in Santa Monica soon, we should catch up for coffee,” Hartmann says.
Yusko was impressed by his returns. Hartmann had no clue that meeting Yusko would lead to him investing in both of his funds.
Now, still in his 20s, he is dealing with more zeros on the screen than most people ever see in their lifetime.
“The hedge fund trades every single day, I think there was a month where we had half a billion dollars in a month, trading, in terms of AUM, you probably say $40 million in assets,” Hartmann explains.
What led to social media fame for Felix Hartmann?
As a millennial, Hartmann is probably way more tech-savvy than other crypto fund managers. He’s big on video content and uses Instagram and TikTok, which has helped him rack up almost 100,000 followers across his social media channels.
(X/Felix Hartmann)
He says that when he first started fund management, he built his following by documenting a lot of his start-up journey, living in a three-bedroom apartment with two other entrepreneur roommates.
Once his fund started trading millions, he said goodbye to his roommates and took over the entire three-bedroom apartment for himself.
He admits that the MTV-style content is a thing of the past, and these days, his videos and content focus more on Bitcoin, crypto, the metaverse, and AI.
What content does Felix Hartmann produce?
Hartmann admits that his content has “evolved over time,” and that is fair enough considering he started creating crypto content when he was in his early 20s.
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“I try to be mindful and think about what does my audience care about, what is valuable to them,” he says.
“That has been a struggle, because I’ve matured right. The way I look at the market as a fund manager is totally different to retail investors,” he adds.
“I can be intellectual and crazy, but it doesn’t help anyone.”
Hartmann is trying to find “the sweet spot” but has a mission to share information about world-changing technologies and bring it “closer to people.”
(Felix Hartmann/X)
“I care much more about the impact these technologies have than the financial returns,” he says.
Hartmann claims you are probably not going to find him saying “Token XYZ is going to go to a zillion dollars.”
What content does Felix Hartmann like?
Hartmann says he is a fan of “the intellectually honest,” which is a nice way of saying he isn’t really a fan of crypto bros “shilling their bags” with a hundred posts a day.
“I like people that can share their thoughtful formulated opinions,” Hartmann explains.
(Anthony Pompliano/X)
Hartmann enjoys the content of fellow “fund guys” such as BlockTower Capital chief investment officer Ari Paul, Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani and Arca chief investment officer Jeff Dorman.
Predictions for Felix Hartmann?
Hartmann says “Bitcoin is going to start ripping” if Trump wins the election or Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler “gets fired or resigns.” Either way, it’ll bring more clarity and reduce worries about legal issues for crypto firms.
(Felix Hartmann/X)
However, he argues that many crypto firms might bail if Harris wins because the legal fees to defend themselves could become overwhelming over the next four years.
“Any project that has a billion dollars or less market cap, there treasury is likely only seven figures, maybe only $5 million in runway. If you have $5 million in runaway you do not have the money to defend yourself in court for another two to four years.”
Hartmann says some crypto firms are dropping at least “five figures a month” on legal fees, even for basic tasks like responding to inquiries.
If Trump wins, a six-figure Bitcoin price this year might be “a bit of a stretch,” according to Hartmann. However, he does think reaching the “$90,000s” is definitely within reach.
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Ciaran Lyons
Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He’s also a standup comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.
