During a great year for cryptocurrencies, hedge funds focused on digital assets unsurprisingly did very well, too. It’s just that many didn’t do as well as the industry’s most famous token: Bitcoin.

Several crypto hedge funds saw positive returns last year, but none could match Bitcoin's remarkable performance, which surged 120% to surpass $100,000 for the first time.

AIMA reported the results of a survey that it carried out with crypto hedge fund firms. The poll, conducted in October 2024, aimed to quantify the difficulty these firms are having in accessing banking services such as business chequing accounts that are used to pay vendors, rent and employee salaries.

Hedge fund gains were paltry when compared with the advance notched by bitcoin, which surged 120 per cent to above $US100,000 for the first time.

Pension schemes for the states of Wisconsin and Michigan are among the top holders of US stock market funds devoted to crypto, while some pension fund managers in the UK and Australia have also made small allocations in recent months to bitcoin using funds or derivatives.