Published Oct 24, 2022
By Qredo Team
Case Study: INDIGO Fund
How INDIGO secured the full spectrum of their digital asset activity with Qredo.
Highlights
INDIGO is a multi-strategy fund investing in the hottest sectors of the digital asset ecosystem.
The fund uses Qredo Web3 Wallets to access 12+ DeFi protocols across different EVM-compatible chains, and Qredo Standard Wallets to securely store 3 different digital assets.
With operational and security concerns covered, INDIGO is now expanding on multiple fronts.
"Our pioneering approach to investment means we need to tap into opportunities across all corners of the digital asset ecosystem. Qredo delivers access to these investments, and acts as a governance and security layer that secures all of our digital asset activity — freeing us up to focus on growth and successful execution of our strategies."
— Nathanael Cohen, Co-Founder & CIO, INDIGO Fund
Indigo Fund
INDIGO is a crypto hedge fund investing across the entire spectrum of the market; from blue chip digital assets such as bitcoin and ether, to the hottest tokens in the fast-growing GameFi, metaverse, and DeFi sectors.
Challenge
Formed in the downturn of early 2022 by a group of crypto-native degens and escapees from traditional finance, INDIGO faced a uniquely challenging market environment. Yet many of the infrastructure issues they encountered are universal among growing funds.
First, as a multi-strategy fund, INDIGO needed a way to segregate activity between multiple wallets. Assets held in each wallet required protection from both external and internal threats, and each team member needed to be able to securely initiate and authenticate transactions.
Furthermore, INDIGO's sophisticated DeFi strategies required custody infrastructure that enabled the secure storage of different types of assets — from NFTs to stablecoins — and the ability to optimize yields by staking and lending.
Solution
As crypto-natives, several members of the INDIGO team had already used the original orange MetaMask as individuals. This naturally led them to the professional alternative for organizations: MetaMask Institutional.
A trusted advisor recommended Qredo as a custody solution that integrates with MetaMask Institutional, and secures INDIGO's DeFi activity without compromising on access to staking, lending, and NFTs.
Using Qredo, the team were then able to configure subaccounts for each of their investment strategies.
They set up Qredo Web3 Wallets for each DeFi fund, enabling them to pursue a range of strategies — from lending NFTs to buying utility tokens — across multiple EVM-compatible blockchains.
To balance out the more adventurous plays, INDIGO also runs lower risk strategies. For these, the team created Qredo Web3 Wallets for farming stablecoin yields on different protocols, and standard Qredo Wallets to secure blue chip assets like bitcoin, solana, and ether. These large-cap digital assets were dollar-cost-averaged into using a centralized brokerage firm, and then transferred to Qredo for secure long-term custody.
For each wallet, the team created a governance policy granting each of the four general partners the ability to initiate a transaction, and requiring the approval of at least two other partners.
"There are a couple of things that I particularly like about Qredo. First, the straightforward, streamlined governance workflow for day-to-day operations, and second, the fact that it is a Web3 native solution driven by its own token. We are looking forward to being able to get more involved in the ecosystem by paying fees with Qredo Token (QRDO) and voting on governance proposals."
— Nathanael Cohen, Co-Founder & CIO, INDIGO Fund
Benefit
INDIGO has now been using Qredo since May 2022, and enjoys ease of access to DeFi, peace of mind against external and internal threats, and complete confidence in operational security — all of which comes at a fraction of the cost of other MPC providers.
As a result, INDIGO has been able to focus on expansion. The fund is now committing more investment to the most exciting areas of Web3, and planning a new raise to double its AUM. The team also plans to open a new VC fund in Q1 2023, with a targeted raise of $25-30M.
"Qredo liberates our focus. We can set aside the custody infrastructure issues that plague the digital asset space, and focus on our own growth — assured that our security and governance concerns are taken care of."
— Nathanael Cohen, Co-Founder & CIO, INDIGO Fund
