RockawayX Expands Beyond Venture Capital With New $150 Million Liquid Hedge Fund

The move would push a firm managing approximately $2 billion further beyond traditional venture capital and into liquid crypto strategies—an important shift as institutional capital looks for exposure with faster deployment and clearer portfolio liquidity.

Venture capital is moving toward tradable exposure

The new vehicle will be led by Relayer founder Austin Barack, who previously worked as a partner at CoinFund. According to sources cited by Forbes, the fund plans to invest in undervalued tokens and crypto-related equities.

That mandate matters because it changes the capital model. Venture funds typically accept long lockups and startup execution risk; a liquid opportunities strategy can instead rotate among listed tokens and public-market instruments as valuations, liquidity and market structure change. For allocators, the distinction is not cosmetic: it affects redemption terms, risk controls, valuation methodology and the speed at which capital can be repositioned.

RockawayX’s timing also reflects a broader expansion of crypto investment firms into adjacent strategies. Forbes reported that several major venture firms, including Paradigm and Framework Ventures, have broadened their mandates to include artificial intelligence, robotics and other technologies. RockawayX is taking a different route by adding liquid market exposure to its existing venture platform.

The acquisition gives RockawayX a performance case

Relayer’s reported results appear to be central to the transaction. Sources cited by Forbes said the fund returned approximately 70% this year, supported by positions in Hyperliquid and Venice AI. Their tokens were reported to have risen 219% and 1,006%, respectively, during the year.

The figures come with concentration and liquidity questions that prospective investors will need to examine rather than treat as a repeatable base case. Forbes reported that Hyperliquid’s token had a market capitalization of about $18 billion, while Venice AI’s token was valued at more than $800 million. Those figures indicate meaningful market depth relative to smaller assets, but they do not by themselves establish exit capacity, drawdown protection or the fund’s underlying liquidity terms.

RockawayX has already been building infrastructure outside venture investing. In February, the firm entered crypto-vault management through a separate acquisition. The noncustodial smart contracts pool user capital and deploy it across yield-generating strategies; Forbes reported that the vaults had attracted more than $200 million in deposits.

For institutional investors, the practical diligence list is therefore expanding: verify whether the new fund’s return history is independently documented, separate token beta from manager alpha, and assess how the strategy handles valuation gaps and stressed liquidity. A strong recent performance can support fundraising, but it can also increase dependence on the same market conditions that produced it.

Legal overhang remains part of the risk assessment

The expansion is proceeding despite the collapse of RockawayX’s proposed merger with Solmate, a Solana treasury company. In June, RBCH Ltd., a RockawayX investment vehicle and Solmate’s largest outside shareholder, sued members of Solmate’s board in New York state court, alleging self-dealing and other misconduct.

Solmate separately sued RockawayX and its chief executive over the failed acquisition talks, accusing the firm of providing misleading financial statements and conducting a campaign that damaged its valuation. RockawayX denied the allegations and described them as retaliatory. Both cases remain ongoing.

That dispute does not establish misconduct by either side, but it does create a live legal and governance issue for investors evaluating the platform. The immediate macro signal is that crypto managers are no longer relying solely on early-stage equity exposure: they are assembling multi-strategy businesses spanning venture, liquid tokens, crypto-related equities and yield products. For institutions, that means more potential access points—and a greater need to underwrite liquidity, conflicts, valuation practices and legal exposure at the manager level.