HedgeCo.Net — RockawayX, a digital-asset investment platform with about $2 billion of assets under management, said Tuesday it had acquired Relayer Capital, the New York-area hedge fund founded by Austin Barack. Relayer will become the RockawayX Liquid Opportunities Fund, a directional long/short book aimed at undervalued liquid tokens and crypto-related equities, and Barack will join as chief investment officer of the fund. The Block independently reported the same acquisition, the same rebrand, and the same CIO title.
The fund is open to new outside investors, the firm said. Terms of the Relayer purchase were not disclosed. Forbes, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that RockawayX is seeking $150 million for the vehicle; The Block repeated that fundraising figure and attributed it to the same Forbes report. RockawayX’s own statement did not confirm a target, a timetable, or a fee schedule. Keep the $150 million as a sourced report, not as a close.
Relayer’s liquid strategy has delivered an estimated net return of about 70% year to date and outperformed an equal-weighted basket of bitcoin, ether, and solana by 86% as of August 21, the company said. The Block printed the same estimated 70% and 86% figures from that statement. The press release itself flags the numbers as estimated, unaudited, and subject to change. Do not recast them as audited performance.
The acquisition adds a directional liquid sleeve to a platform that already runs venture and market-neutral books, and it plants a U.S. CIO in the New York area. That is a product expansion, not a $2 billion AUM print by itself. Allocators should mark the object as a purchased strategy that is still raising, not as a fully subscribed vehicle.
The second-order read is who gets paid for liquid token selection once the venture book is no longer the only way into the same names. A directional long/short sitting next to market-neutral credit and early-stage equity is a different risk-return slot. Anyone still treating RockawayX as a venture shop only is a sleeve behind the acquisition.