In January 2024, as crypto prices were soaring, Zaheer Ebtikar unveiled a new digital assets hedge fund called Split Capital. Two years later, he’s winding that firm down as he pivots to one of the buzziest sectors in crypto: stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar. On Tuesday, the former hedge fund manager announced that he was joining the stablecoin startup Plasma as chief strategy officer.
Ebtikar’s decision to wind down Split Capital wasn’t due to any lack of success. The founder said that his returns in 2024 and 2025 were around 100% and 20%, respectively. Rather, he believes that crypto hedge funds are no longer a workable business.
“The entire hedge fund industry in crypto is kind of down and out,” he exclusively told Fortune.
In late 2025, Split Capital gave investors back their capital. The fund’s former backers included the venture fund Novi Loren and the digital asset company UTXO Management. While Ebtikar declined to specify how much money his firm managed, he did say its assets under management numbered in the “eight figures.” The fund will continue to operate as a smaller operation, with only its own capital.
Fund fallout
The winding down of Split Capital comes as the crypto investing landscape appears rocky. The longtime crypto venture fund Paradigm is expanding its focus to include AI and robotics. And veteran investor Kyle Samani announced in February that he was leaving his firm Multicoin to invest in sectors beyond crypto. Crypto venture is undergoing a “mass extinction event,” Rob Hadick, a general partner at the digital assets investor Dragonfly, recently said.
The shakeout isn’t just because prices for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are down almost 50% since their all-time highs in 2025. Ebtikar believes the death of crypto hedge funds is partly a result of the success of digital asset exchange-traded funds.
When financial giants refused to touch cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the 2010s, hedge and venture funds took on the risk of directly holding large tokens. That’s what prompted the rise of stalwart crypto investors such as Pantera Capital. Now, institutional investors can gain exposure to digital assets through funds issued by the likes of BlackRock or Fidelity.
Meanwhile, stablecoins have broken into mainstream Silicon Valley. Proponents say they can speed up transfers and reduce transaction fees. Ebtikar felt they had potential, and, after he met Paul Faecks, the CEO of Plasma, he decided to become an early backer of Faecks and his stablecoin startup.
“I was always helping out, making big decisions as an advisor for a long time,” Ebtikar said.
Now. he is officially in the C-suite, helping Plasma as it prepares to launch its own consumer app that aims to build a stablecoin-powered competitor to other neobanks, like those from SoFi or Revolut.
Ebtikar sees part of his role as a “public evangelizer” to convince those outside Plasma of the utility of its blockchain and forthcoming app. His remit now includes “a lot of the senior partnerships, a lot of the senior investor relationships,” he said, and he has “a very direct hand in the product development cycle.”
“This is a culmination of being in crypto for nine years now, seeing what works, what doesn’t, and being like, ‘This is actually what people want,’” Ebtikar said.
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