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Crypto has spent years obsessing over tokens, airdrops, and speculation. But what about the unsexy businesses actually making money?

Arthur Hayes and Adam Schlegel join Laura Shin to talk about Maelstrom’s $250M private equity fund targeting crypto’s most profitable, yet overlooked, companies, $50M revenue businesses with 50% margins that VCs can’t touch and exchanges won’t pay cash for.

But while everyone frames this as just another fund, Hayes and Schlegel argue it’s actually the missing piece in crypto’s maturation: a cash buyer for founders who’ve done their time and want out without four-year earnouts.

Plus: Why Asian crypto companies with monster margins get ignored by Western capital.

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• • Binance

Guests:

• • Arthur Hayes, Co-Founder of BitMEX & CIO at Maelstrom
  • Adam Schlegel, Head of Private Equity at Maelstrom
    • Previous appearances on Unchained:
      • The Chopping Block: Arthur Hayes & Tom Lee; Hyperliquid vs Aster, DATs & ETH
      • Arthur Hayes and Hanson Birringer on Hyperliquid’s Success (And What Could Stop It)

Links:

• • Bloomberg: Arthur Hayes’ Family Office Seeks $250M for Buyout Fund
  • Coindesk: Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom Seeks $250M Private Equity Fund to Acquire Crypto Firms: Bloomberg
  • Akshat’s tweet announcing the fund