The launch of the Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital fund marks a pivotal moment in the institutionalization of the digital asset space, demonstrating a powerful collaboration that bridges Western regulatory infrastructure with burgeoning Middle Eastern capital markets. Canadian digital asset investment manager 3iQ and its counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Further Asset Management, have jointly launched a multi-strategy digital hedge fund that promises double-digit returns and has attracted a significant US$100 million of investments, primarily from sophisticated global allocators.
The joint statement, issued on December 3, 2025, confirmed the Fund’s structure, which offers risk-managed exposure to digital assets, including a highly anticipated dedicated Bitcoin share class. The initial investments were drawn from a discerning group that included traditional financial institutions, influential family offices, and sovereign investors, signaling growing confidence in regulated, complex digital finance products. This landmark advancement suggests a new era of sovereign-backed participation in the digital asset ecosystem, according to sources close to the announcement.
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Pascal St-Jean, President and Chief Executive Officer of 3iQ, outlined the ambitious financial objectives of the new venture in an interview with Asia Asset Management, stating that the hedge fund aims to achieve 12%-15% returns annually. This target positions the fund as a compelling alternative investment vehicle in a volatile market where generating non-correlated alpha remains a primary goal for professional money managers.
Mr. St-Jean emphasized that the fund was explicitly designed to address the core challenges institutional investors face when seeking to access digital assets. It provides a “secure and efficient way to allocate within a framework that meets the highest standards of institutional due diligence.” He further elaborated on the strategic necessity of the product, noting: “We believe this investment solution represents a true evolution in the market, empowering institutions and family offices to confidently pursue double-digit potential returns through a disciplined, risk-managed approach.”
The Architects of Institutional Access: 3iQ’s Regulatory Pedigree
The foundation of the Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital fund is built upon the established regulatory pedigree of Toronto-based 3iQ. Managing over $3.5 billion of assets, 3iQ has consistently positioned itself as a global pioneer in digital asset investment solutions. The firm, founded in 2012 by investment industry veteran Fred Pye, has a history of achieving regulatory “firsts” in Canada, a jurisdiction recognized for its stringent securities standards.
3iQ’s track record demonstrates its ability to successfully navigate complex regulatory waters. In 2017, the firm became the first regulated Digital Asset Investment Fund Manager in Canada. This milestone was followed by the launch of North America’s first major exchange-listed Bitcoin and Ether Funds in 2020. The firm’s ongoing commitment to innovation continued into 2023, with the launch of the world’s first ETH staking ETF and North America’s first ETH staking ETP, demonstrating adaptability to the evolving needs of the Web3 landscape. Furthermore, 3iQ’s reach extended to the Middle East as early as 2021 when it listed The Bitcoin Fund on Nasdaq Dubai, marking the region’s first exchange-listed digital asset-based fund.
This history of regulatory compliance and product innovation provides the essential infrastructure and operational confidence necessary to attract the highly scrutinized capital from sovereign wealth and family offices. The firm’s Managed Account Platform (QMAP), a hedge fund investment solution with robust institutional infrastructure, serves as a crucial component that informs the partnership with Further. In 2024, the Japanese financial group Monex Group took a majority stake in 3iQ, further cementing the firm’s global standing and its capacity to scale sophisticated financial operations worldwide.
Further Asset Management: The Gateway to Sovereign Capital
The strategic significance of the partnership lies in Further Asset Management’s role as the institutional gateway within the UAE and the broader Gulf region. Further is described as a global investment platform that connects pioneering financial infrastructure with global capital markets, specifically providing institutional investors with access to regulated opportunities across venture, structured products, and digital assets.
Crucially, Further Asset Management Holdings has known backing from Abu Dhabi sovereign investor ADQ. This backing is not merely financial; it signifies an alignment with the UAE’s strategic vision to become a global hub for digital finance and innovation. Faisal Al Hammadi, Managing Partner at Further, articulated this vision, stating that the partnership reflects the firm’s conviction that digital assets are becoming a permanent allocation in institutional portfolios. By combining their regional expertise and investor relationships with 3iQ’s proven infrastructure, they aim to create an innovative solution that lowers barriers to entry while upholding the highest standards of governance and transparency.
The involvement of sovereign wealth capital in the seed funding—an amount anchored with a significant in-kind investment from an Abu Dhabi-based Family Office—underscores the region’s serious commitment to the asset class. This collaboration aims to deliver risk-managed institutional-grade access to digital assets, leveraging the strong regulatory environment being cultivated across the UAE’s financial free zones.
Fund Strategy: Market Neutrality and Bitcoin Accumulation
The Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital Fund is structured as a market-neutral, multi-strategy hedge fund. This structure is key to achieving the targeted double-digit returns while mitigating the extreme volatility typically associated with direct digital asset exposure. A market-neutral strategy focuses on capturing alpha, or excess returns, from pricing inefficiencies within the liquid digital asset space, regardless of whether the broader market (Bitcoin, Ether, etc.) is trending up or down.
The multi-strategy approach enables the fund to deploy capital across various arbitrage and relative value techniques, such as basis trading, decentralized finance (DeFi) yield generation, and potentially quantitative strategies. This diversified, risk-managed allocation is designed to ensure the fund operates within a robust institutional framework that meets the demanding standards of global capital allocators.
A particularly innovative aspect of the launch is the dedicated Bitcoin (BTC) share class. This share class offers a pioneering structure for existing BTC holders, enabling investors to subscribe to the fund using Bitcoin itself, thereby compounding the strategy’s return in BTC terms. This allows investors to maintain full exposure to the underlying asset while simultaneously seeking to benefit from digital market alpha. For long-term Bitcoin holders, this mechanism provides a secure, institutionally risk-managed way to grow their underlying BTC holdings without the need for active trading or high-risk leverage.
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The Canadian Regulatory Anchor: A Model for Digital Asset Governance
The Canadian regulatory environment, under the oversight of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), has long been considered a bellwether for digital asset management. 3iQ’s success is inextricably linked to its rigorous adherence to these standards, which are essential for institutional confidence.
In Canada, companies that hold client assets, issue tokens for investment purposes, or facilitate trading in cryptoassets that qualify as securities fall under the regulation of the Canadian Securities Administrators. This requires them to register as an investment dealer or restricted dealer and comply with requirements such as minimum capital, liability insurance, and segregated accounts where client assets are kept separate from company funds.
Recent years have seen substantial regulatory clarification. The CSA finalized amendments to Public Crypto Asset Fund rules (National Instrument 81-102) in 2025, providing greater clarity on custodial requirements and the types of crypto assets that may be purchased. These updates, for instance, permit Public Crypto Asset Funds to engage in securities lending, repurchase transactions, and reverse repurchase transactions that involve crypto assets, so long as the underlying assets are considered securities. Moreover, platforms that hold custody of client cryptocurrency are mandated to comply with strict minimum asset custody requirements, including the use of cold storage for the majority of client funds, rigorous internal security protocols, and annual external IT audits. This highly regulated backdrop provides the operational certainty that the Further x 3iQ fund is now exporting globally.
The UAE: A Nexus for Global Digital Finance
The other half of the partnership is anchored in the UAE’s rapidly maturing regulatory landscape, particularly within its financial free zones. The UAE has established a comprehensive regulatory framework for virtual assets through various cabinet resolutions and local laws, enhancing investor protection and promoting transparency.
Dubai, under the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), has created an advanced legal framework designed to protect investors and promote responsible business growth under prudential supervision. Simultaneously, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre of Abu Dhabi, has cultivated a risk-based and progressive regulatory approach. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM regulates Derivatives and Funds of digital assets, requiring market operators and intermediaries to be licensed. The ADGM framework is widely praised for catering to a diverse suite of business activities, including Fiat-Referenced Tokens and Collective Investment Funds investing in digital assets.
The UAE’s strategic push for regulatory clarity has attracted global giants. For example, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, recently secured formal authorisation for its global platform, Binance.com, under the ADGM framework, covering Exchange, Clearing House, and Broker-Dealer entities. This regulatory endorsement in ADGM highlights the high-trust environment where Further, with its sovereign backing, can confidently operate and attract institutional capital. Furthermore, the New Banking Law in the UAE clarifies digital finance operations, bringing payment services using virtual assets under the Central Bank’s regulatory supervision and increasing penalties for unlicensed financial activities, ensuring a robust and compliant ecosystem. This regulatory clarity is precisely what sophisticated global allocators demand when considering large-scale digital asset investments.
Overcoming the Institutional Barriers to Entry
For years, the promise of digital asset returns was tempered by significant institutional barriers. The high volatility, coupled with operational complexities such as securing qualified custodianship and managing decentralized governance structures, kept much of the world’s largest pools of capital on the sidelines. The Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital fund directly addresses these hurdles, packaging the opportunity within a familiar, high-governance hedge fund vehicle.
The concept of a risk-managed, multi-strategy digital fund represents the next logical step in the maturity of the asset class. Early institutional interest primarily focused on simple, long-only exposure through Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, which track the market’s price movements. The new fund, however, provides a solution for institutions whose mandates require absolute return targets and lower volatility, achieved through market-neutral strategies that generate alpha regardless of directional market movement.
The involvement of 3iQ’s Digital Managed Account Platform (QMAP) in informing this strategy further highlights the focus on operational excellence. QMAP was designed to provide scalable, one-stop solutions catering to global institutional investors, Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs), and wealth management platforms. The integration of this proven infrastructure with Further’s ability to draw capital from influential sovereign wealth sources creates a powerful synergy that is currently unmatched in the digital asset hedge fund space.
Market Implications and Future Outlook
The successful $100 million seed round, anchored by sovereign and family office money, is a profound indicator of institutional rotation into sophisticated digital asset strategies. It underscores a shift from cautious exploration to strategic, permanent allocation. As Faisal Al Hammadi noted, the objective is clear: “to empower institutional investors to participate in the digital asset economy with confidence, scale, and resilience.”
The launch of the Further x 3iQ Alpha Digital Fund also has significant geopolitical implications for digital finance. It formalizes a robust East-West corridor for capital flow and product innovation. Canada, with its transparent securities regulation, provides the operational trust, while the UAE, leveraging its progressive regulatory environment in financial centers like ADGM and its vast pools of sovereign capital, provides the essential growth engine and gateway to Asian and Middle Eastern wealth.
The fund’s focus on non-correlated alpha generation, aiming for 12%-15% annual returns, is also a response to the challenging macro-environment where traditional fixed income and equity markets may offer diminishing risk-adjusted returns. In a world characterized by fragmented global liquidity and evolving regulatory standards, a partnership that unites two strong, regulated jurisdictions provides a compelling and future-proof model for asset allocation. This move is expected to inspire similar cross-jurisdictional collaborations, further accelerating the integration of digital assets into the global financial mainstream. Ultimately, the collaboration marks a significant step forward in delivering innovative solutions within a sovereign-backed institutional framework, addressing the long-standing industry challenge of merging the frontier technology of digital assets with the conservative mandates of institutional capital.
The market expects the fund to serve as a bellwether for future institutional adoption, particularly given the growing regulatory pressures on digital asset service providers in North America to register with the necessary authorities, such as FINTRAC and the CSA, and meet strict capital and client asset protection standards. By meeting the most rigorous standards of both Canadian and UAE regulators, Further and 3iQ have created a blueprint for global, institutional-grade digital asset investing. The coming months will demonstrate how quickly other institutional allocators move to commit capital to this new, securely governed investment pathway.
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By: Montel Kamau
Serrari Financial Analyst
8th December, 2025
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