Akshat Vaidhya, part of Arthur Hayes’ family office Maelstrom, recently revealed a disappointing outcome from a $100,000 investment in the Pantera Early-Stage Token Fund. Despite strong performance from Bitcoin and select crypto projects, his investment lost nearly 50% of its value over four years.
The main culprit? According to Vaidhya, it was a combination of high management fees and a lack of strong, early-stage crypto deals. These factors diluted the overall returns, leaving limited partners (LPs) with underperforming portfolios even in a generally bullish market.
Too Much Capital, Not Enough Good Projects
Vaidhya criticized the growing size of early-stage crypto funds, noting that they often raise more capital than the market can absorb with high-quality projects. With too much money chasing too few solid opportunities, fund managers may end up investing in weaker deals just to deploy capital.
This leads to poor overall fund performance, even if a few individual projects do well. Pantera’s fund, he argues, is a prime example of this issue — highlighting the dangers of scale without selectivity in the crypto space.
Akshat Vaidhya of Arthur Hayes’ family fund Maelstorm revealed his $100K investment in Pantera Early-Stage Token Fund lost nearly half its value over four years due to high fees, despite BTC gains and strong returns from some projects. He criticized early-stage crypto funds for…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 3, 2025
Smarter Investment Strategies Needed
In his closing remarks, Vaidhya encouraged other LPs to rethink their approach to early-stage crypto investing. He suggested that rather than joining large, generalized funds, LPs should look for smaller, more focused investment strategies that prioritize quality over quantity.
The takeaway is clear: crypto investing isn’t just about access — it’s about discipline, deal flow, and smart capital deployment.