In 2018, David Siemer teamed up with Benjamin Tsai to bring together a team of investment managers with experience that spanned across asset management and banking in the US and Europe to form Wave Financial Group, the parent company of Wave Financial LLC, a California state registered investment adviser focused on the emerging world of digital assets.
Based on Tsai’s experience as the former Managing Director of structured products at Merrill Lynch in Asia, Wave launched the first crypto derivatives fund in the industry, the Wave BTC Income & Growth digital fund (WBIG), designed to take advantage of the high volatility of Bitcoin to provide a dividend yield using a covered call strategy, as well as capturing most of the potential upside of Bitcoin.
The fund has recently completed its full year of operations, paying out a dividend of 1.5% of NAV per month for the full 12 months, while providing close to 100% return on the upside.
Founder convinced digital assets will go mainstream
Foresight is an important attribute when it comes to seeing how investment markets may evolve. Siemer has been convinced that digital assets will evolve into the next big investment sector, similar, he believes, to how the hedge fund sector did in the 1980s.
Wave Financial has the conviction and model for the digital asset space, offering well structured, well managed investment management services and an investment manager that is a registered investment adviser. These services come in the form of funds (both crypto and real-asset), wealth management and venture capital. Applying “traditional” investment management strategies designed to provide “growth & income” to this new asset class was the first place to start.
2020 has brought this vision to reality as the digital asset space started to re-emerge from two years on the side lines after the boom and bust of 2017/18. As more well known institutions turn their attention to digital assets, it is becoming clear that a substantial amount of crypto and the underlying technology has become more mature in its quest for mainstream adoption. Siemer believes this momentum and renewed enthusiasm around the space will lead to an inflow of capital that in turn will lead to increased demand for funds such as WBIG.
“We are pleased that our Bitcoin growth and income fund has achieved what we set it out to do in its first year, achieving a stable return from what is otherwise perceived as a volatile asset,” said Tsai. “The income component is particularly compelling in the current low yield environment.”
Investment limited to accredited investors only
Investment in the fund is limited to accredited investors and includes a mixture of institutions, family offices and high-net worth individuals, with a mixture of experience in both digital assets and traditional financial markets.
WBIG is a fund that is specifically designed to provide investors with significant exposure to Bitcoin, whilst offsetting volatility from such exposure and with the aim of generating a stable return. It strives to smooth out the volatile Bitcoin return profile by converting that volatility into high yield.
Adhering to the highest of standards in compliance with US-based investment advisory regulations the WBIG fund is managed by the team at Wave Financial LLC and employs a covered call option strategy designed to provide a dividend style target return of 1.5% per month (18% annualised). Investors have the flexibility of receiving their returns monthly or having them reinvested in the fund.
