Descartes

Investment objective

Descartes aims to deliver systematic returns uncorrelated to the direction of digital asset markets by building a long-short book across a broad universe of liquid tokens. The strategy exploits persistent cross-sectional dispersion — the tendency for relative winners and losers to separate — rather than the overall level of the market.

Approach

• Universe. More than 100 deeply liquid tokens across regulated and tier-one venues, screened for capacity, borrow viability and data quality.
• Signal stack. A composite of momentum, reversal, value, quality and microstructural factors, combined with statistical-learning overlays.
• Neutralisation. The book is constructed to be market-neutral in expectation, with explicit sector and factor neutralisation where appropriate.
• Portfolio construction. An optimiser balances expected return, forecast covariance, turnover and liquidity, subject to pre-defined risk and concentration limits.
• Execution. In-house smart routing; turnover is monitored daily and scheduled to minimise market impact.

Who it is for

Descartes is designed for professional and institutional investors seeking a low-correlation return stream to complement directional digital asset positions or traditional absolute-return allocations. Typical use cases include a diversifier within an alternative sleeve, a stand-alone market-neutral digital asset mandate, or a hedge-overlay building block.

Governance

Descartes runs under the same pre-trade risk framework as the rest of the suite: VaR, stress, concentration, venue and counterparty limits. A dedicated monitoring layer handles breaches automatically; a human layer reviews every breach and regime transition the following business day.

Frequently asked questions

What is the investment objective of Descartes?

Descartes aims to deliver systematic long-short returns that are structurally uncorrelated to the direction of digital asset markets, by exploiting cross-sectional dispersion across a liquid universe.

Is Descartes truly market-neutral?

Descartes is constructed to target market-neutrality in expectation, using cross-sectional long-short construction and a beta-hedging overlay. Realised beta may deviate modestly in the short term, within defined tolerance bands.

How many instruments does Descartes trade?

Descartes operates across more than 100 liquid tokens, rebalanced according to its research cadence and subject to capacity, liquidity and turnover constraints.