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.
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.
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.
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.
