Key facts
- Mitchell Dong is leaving Pythagoras Investments after 12 years to build an exchange for electricity perpetuals.
- Eric Zhao, previously COO and portfolio manager, will become CEO of Pythagoras Investments.
- Yusen Chau will continue as chief investment officer of Pythagoras Investments.
- Dong will redeem all his general partner capital but retain a profits interest and advisory role.
- The firm's fund terms, fees, liquidity, administrator, auditor, custodians, legal counsel, and investor reporting remain unchanged.
- New capital from Zhao and Chau, along with employees and long-standing LPs, will replace Dong's capital as majority shareholders.
Mitchell Dong, founder of crypto hedge fund Pythagoras Investments, is stepping down after 12 years to launch an exchange for electricity perpetuals, targeting AI data centers. Dong, who has a background in energy trading, plans to apply lessons learned from crypto exchanges to the power markets.
Eric Zhao, formerly COO and portfolio manager, will assume the role of CEO, while Yusen Chau will continue as chief investment officer. The transition is designed to assure investors of continuity, with Zhao and Chau emphasizing that fund terms, fees, liquidity, and operational teams remain unchanged. Dong will redeem his general partner capital but will retain a profits interest and serve as an advisor, stating his reputation is tied to the success of Zhao and Chau.
New capital from Zhao, Chau, employees, and long-standing limited partners will replace Dong's stake, maintaining a comparable general partner capital base. Pythagoras Investments currently employs strategies including arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, quantitative directional, DeFi yield, and event-driven approaches in digital asset markets. In 2022, the firm's market-neutral and trend-following funds reportedly returned approximately 8%, despite the collapse of FTX, which impacted its arbitrage fund.