Entrepreneur Jeff Sekinger lands in Miami, scales crypto hedge fund

This young financier managing 200 Orca Capital investors’ $60M in crypto has two goals: Don’t lose money and outperform Bitcoin

Peter Lynch is considered one of the most successful investors of all time. During his tenure managing Fidelity’s Magellan Fund in the 1970s and 80s, Lynch achieved returns of more than twice  the S&P 500’s gains during that time.

Lynch’s motto: Know what you own. While he was always flexible to market conditions, he always emphasized the need for investors to have a deep understanding of the assets they were buying.

This advice is more valuable than ever, in a time of soaring valuations, untamed inflation, and a proliferation of platforms that empower anybody with a smartphone and a bank account to play the markets.

And recent Miami transplant Jeff Sekinger just might one day be the Peter Lynch of the crypto generation.

Like Lynch, who began to run Magellan at the ripe age of 33, Sekinger also began managing major money at a young age (mid-20s, in Sekinger’s case). Equally, Sekinger’s cryptocurrency hedge fund preaches the value of having a deep understanding of the securities they own. Sekinger has also gained a high profile in the media. Sekinger’s YouTube content covering crypto and personal finance topics regularly garner tens of thousands of views, and his Instagram page has over half a million followers.

Jeff Sekinger

Sekinger started building his first business, 0 Percent, when he was working for JP Morgan. 0 Percent is an education and consulting company that focuses partially on crypto and partly on real estate and credit. In 2018, the business’s rapid growth enabled Sekinger to leave his day job.

Building on 0 Percent, Sekinger launched hedge fund Orca Capital in 2019 alongside co-founder and former Big Four CPA Austin Barnard. Across the two companies, Sekinger leads a team of 47 employees.

Since moving to Miami from California just over a year ago, Sekinger told Refresh Miami that Orca Capital has experienced “exponential growth.”

“We have been getting a ton of referrals and we talk to a few dozen people a week who are interested in investing,” Sekinger explained. He reports that the fund currently has 200 accredited investors and manages around $60 million.

According to Sekinger, Orca Capital’s investor list is more diverse than you may expect. For instance, Sekinger said that their youngest investor is 19 while their oldest is 79. Orca Capital caters to everyone from individuals with retirement accounts and businesses looking to build wealth to trust funds and family offices.

Orca Capital invests solely in cryptocurrency assets. Sekinger explained his two-pronged strategy. Number one: don’t lose money. Number two: outperform bitcoin.

“Anyone can create a coin in literally five minutes,” said Sekinger. “So what you need to understand is that the vast majority of the industry is a bunch of noise and the majority of the assets have no utility.”

That’s why Orca Capital sticks to the fundamentals, a la Lynch. “We invest in smart contracts that have their own blockchain and that have actual adoption,” asserted Sekinger. Somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of their portfolio is in Bitcoin because it is one of the more stable cryptocurrencies.

Why Miami? On top of its position as a crypto capital, Sekinger praised the city’s weather and Florida’s beneficial tax environment as two main advantages. “It’s very vibrant and energetic,” he acknowledged. “Moving here was pretty much a no brainer!”

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Riley Kaminer