How to Choose the Top Crypto Hedge Fund Database in 2025

TLDR: Allocators face a growing universe of crypto hedge funds and need a way to understand their options quickly, evaluate managers consistently, and defend allocation decisions to investment committees. Choosing the right crypto hedge fund database is critical for family offices, fund-of-funds, multi-managers, digital asset treasuries, and institutional investors. But just a database is not enough. Institutions need a full platform that combines data with operational diligence, analytics, benchmarking, and expertise. We review the leading options and explain why Crypto Insights Group provides the most robust solution.

Allocators are increasingly turning to specialized databases to identify credible managers, streamline diligence workflows, and benchmark performance. From operational risk analysis to peer comparison, the right platform delivers confidence, saves time, and supports better investment decisions.

Below, we review the three leading options in 2025, highlight what makes each stand out, and explain why Crypto Insights Group is the clear choice for serious allocators.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Crypto Hedge Fund Database?
• Who Needs It (and When)?
• How We Chose the Best Crypto Hedge Fund Databases
  
  • Depth and Quality of Coverage
  • Operational Due Diligence (ODD) Capabilities
  • Performance Data Integrity
  • Exhaustive Investment Analytics
  • Benchmarking and Peer Comparison
  • Allocator Usability
  • Integration and Verification
  • Specialization vs Breadth
  • Community and Allocator Support
  • Institutional Team, Expertise, and Accessibility
• The 3 Best Crypto Hedge Fund Databases in 2025
  
  • Crypto Insights Group 
  • Preqin
  • Crypto Fund Research
• How to Decide
• Why Crypto Insights Group Leads the Pack
• FAQs
• Ready to Upgrade Your Diligence?

The past five years have completely reshaped how institutions evaluate digital-asset managers. What was once a space of spreadsheets, whispered introductions, and opaque performance records has transformed into a professionalized, data-driven ecosystem. Allocators now expect the same rigor in crypto hedge fund diligence as they do in traditional equity, credit, or real assets.

The change has been accelerated by institutional adoption. According to Ernst & Young’s 2025 Institutional Investor Digital Assets Survey, 86% of surveyed institutional investors have exposure to digital assets, or plan to make digital asset allocations in 2025. Family offices, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and corporate treasuries are no longer asking “if” crypto belongs in a portfolio, but “how” it should be implemented, managed, and monitored.

This influx of institutional capital has also raised the bar for fund managers. Investors are no longer satisfied with marketing decks and unaudited performance claims. They want standardized data, verified operational practices, and allocator-ready analytics that allow them to benchmark managers on equal footing. The result is the rapid rise of demand for an institutional crypto hedge fund database: a platform designed to bring transparency, diligence, and structure to an industry once dominated by opaque narratives.

For allocators, family offices, and multi-managers, these databases are not just convenience tools. They are the foundation for credible manager discovery, rigorous operational due diligence, and defensible allocation decisions. In this post, we will break down what a crypto hedge fund database is, who needs one, how to evaluate providers, and the three best platforms in 2025. Spoiler: not all databases are created equal, and only one has been purpose-built for crypto allocators from the ground up.

What Is a Crypto Hedge Fund Database?

At its core, a crypto hedge fund database is a centralized resource for researching, evaluating, and benchmarking digital-asset hedge funds. Think of it as the Bloomberg Terminal for crypto managers: fund details, strategy classifications, service provider relationships, and operational diligence data all in one place.

Sometimes, databases are just add-on features inside larger alternatives datasets. Other times, they are category-defining tools that deliver allocator-ready transparency, automated data ingestion, and operational due diligence (ODD) frameworks designed specifically for crypto.

Key trends driving the category today:

• Allocator demand for transparency: Institutions want verified custody, audits, and service-provider data before allocating.
• Integration with traditional systems: Databases are starting to plug into FactSet, Preqin, and Morningstar-like tools.
• ODD as a differentiator: The winners go beyond performance reporting into operational robustness.

Who Needs It (and When)?

• Family offices exploring crypto use databases to quickly filter credible managers from noise.
• Multi-managers and fund-of-funds rely on them for ongoing monitoring, not just one-time selection.
• Large institutions entering digital assets increasingly require allocator-grade databases to satisfy internal governance, risk oversight, and investment committee standards.
• Digital asset and crypto foundation treasuries use them to identify managers who can preserve capital, manage liquidity, and align with governance or mandate requirements.

The best time to adopt a database is before or during capital allocation discussions. It gives you the ability to benchmark funds, stress-test diligence, and explain choices to an investment committee with data, not anecdotes.

How We Chose the Best Crypto Hedge Fund Databases

When you are evaluating something as important as where to source and diligence managers, you cannot just look at a feature checklist. The real test is whether the database will actually save you time, de-risk allocation decisions, and help you justify investments to an investment committee (IC) or to your limited partners (LPs). For institutions, the IC is the internal body that reviews, challenges, and approves allocation decisions, requiring data that is standardized, defensible, and allocator-grade. For fund managers and multi-managers, LPs are the external investors providing capital, and they expect transparency, operational rigor, and reporting that demonstrates best practices. A database must support both audiences by equipping you with the data and frameworks that stand up to scrutiny.

Here are the key dimensions we weighed in choosing the best platforms:

1. Depth and Quality of Coverage

We looked for databases that do not just list funds, but provide comprehensive, current, and correctly classified coverage. A proper platform should capture the majority of active crypto hedge funds, SMAs, and hybrid strategies, not just stale or inactive names. Strategy segmentation matters too. In crypto, “quant” and “market-neutral” mean something very different from “DeFi yield” or “directional long.”

Crypto Insights Group stands out here, with live coverage of 300+ crypto strategies and a constantly updated pipeline of emerging funds.

2. Operational Due Diligence (ODD) Capabilities

For allocators, operational risk is often more important than headline returns. Custody, audits, valuation policies, and regulatory frameworks can make or break an investment. The strongest databases are those that provide transparency across the full range of operational areas, not just surface-level fund details.

We looked for platforms that help allocators answer questions in every major ODD category, including:

• Custody and Asset Safety: Where are assets held, and how segregated and secure are they?
• Audit and Financial Controls: Who audits the fund, and do they have proven digital-asset expertise?
• Valuation and Pricing Policies: How are hard-to-value or illiquid tokens marked, and what methodologies are used?
• Compliance and Regulatory Oversight: Is the fund operating within standards that align with institutional requirements?
• Governance and Service Providers: How strong is the fund’s governance framework, and who are the key administrators, custodians, and legal partners?

Crypto Insights Group leads here with FirmIQ™,  its comprehensive operational framework. FirmIQ™ evaluates investment managers across all of these dimensions, creating allocator-ready scoring that surfaces risks, standardizes reviews, and makes it easier to benchmark managers with consistency.

3. Performance Data Integrity

Performance integrity starts with the source of data. In crypto, too many platforms rely on self-reported PDFs or sporadic manager submissions, which creates risk of selective disclosure. Allocators need databases with direct connectivity to managers and automated data feeds, so they can trust that the performance data is accurate, current, and delivered on a consistent basis.

Equally important is clarity on what type of performance is being reported. Allocators must be able to distinguish between strategies that are run as separately managed accounts (SMA), proprietary trading capital, or open-ended hedge funds. Each structure comes with different liquidity terms, risk exposures, and reporting standards. Without these denotations, allocator comparisons can be misleading.

Finally, allocators require context beyond raw returns. Crypto Insights Group provides in-depth analytics across every key investment metric, including:

• Net versus gross performance.
• Dozens of Risk-adjusted measures such as Sharpe, Sortino, and Calmar ratios.
• Volatility and downside deviation.
• Maximum drawdowns and recovery periods.
• Liquidity terms, redemption frequency, and lock-ups.
• Fee structures and their effect on net performance.

By integrating direct data feeds, clear performance classifications, and exhaustive allocator metrics into one standardized framework, Crypto Insights Group ensures allocators are never left reconciling incomplete or inconsistent information. This saves hundreds of hours of manual diligence work annually and gives investment committees confidence that manager comparisons are fair, accurate, and comprehensive.

4. Exhaustive Investment Analytics

Allocators do not just want raw numbers. They need analytics that align with how they make decisions. That means coverage of every allocator metric: liquidity, drawdowns, volatility measures, Sharpe ratios, fee transparency, and more.

Platforms that lacked comprehensive analytics left allocators doing extra work in spreadsheets. Crypto Insights Group eliminates that problem by building all allocator metrics directly into its platform, ensuring nothing is missed when evaluating managers or constructing portfolios.

5. Benchmarking and Peer Comparison

For allocators, raw returns are never enough. The question is always “relative to what?” A fund delivering 25% annualized may look attractive until you compare it against peers in the same strategy who returned 40%, or against an index that achieved similar returns with far less volatility. Benchmarking is therefore one of the most critical tools for both allocators and managers. It enables investment committees to evaluate whether performance is skill-based, risk-adjusted, and worth allocating capital to.

Crypto Insights Group leads the category by building benchmarking into the core of its platform.

At the center are Crypto Insights Group’s Official and Universe Indices, which provide broad benchmarks for active crypto hedge fund performance. These indices are built directly from manager data inside Crypto Insights Group, allowing allocators to see not just how a single fund performed, but how it compared to the broader hedge fund universe or specific peer cohorts. This gives allocators the context to distinguish true outperformance from market-driven results.

On top of its proprietary indices, Crypto Insights Group partners with the world’s leading index providers, including CoinDesk Indices, Kraken’s CF Benchmarks, VanEck’s MarketVector, S&P Global, and CCI30. These partnerships ensure that allocators can frame results against benchmarks that are widely trusted across traditional finance, bridging the gap between crypto-native performance and global portfolio reporting standards.

Finally, Crypto Insights Group adds allocator-driven customization. Users can create peer groups, sleeves, or strategy baskets and benchmark them against both Crypto Insights Group’s Official and Universe Indices and third-party market indices. This allows allocators to defend manager selection and portfolio construction decisions with clear, data-driven comparisons.

With its proprietary indices, global partnerships, and allocator customization, Crypto Insights Group delivers the most comprehensive benchmarking suite in the crypto space, giving allocators the confidence to measure performance fairly and present results with authority.

6. Allocator Usability

It is not enough to warehouse data. Allocators need platforms that accelerate workflows such as sourcing managers, benchmarking, exporting to IC decks, or monitoring exposures over time.

We evaluated how intuitive search and filtering were, how easily allocators could compare funds, and how quickly data could be turned into decision-ready outputs. Crypto Insights Group saves allocators hundreds of hours of diligence time annually with intuitive search, quick comparisons, and decision-ready reporting.

Crypto Insights Group is best-in-class on usability, with allocator-focused tools that make it easy to go from a long list of managers to a short list of credible candidates quickly.

7. Integration and Verification

Crypto is fragmented, and allocators need confidence that the data they are seeing reflects reality. While many platforms stop at collecting self-reported numbers, the best providers invest in validation and consistency.

Crypto Insights Group has built its entire reputation on data reliability. From standardized fund profiles to rigorous cross-checking of manager submissions, its model ensures allocators can trust what they are seeing.

8. Specialization vs. Breadth

Generalist platforms like Preqin cover all alternatives, but crypto is a small category inside a much larger dataset. That breadth is valuable, but it often comes at the expense of crypto-specific depth.

Crypto Insights Group is different because it is 100% crypto-native. Its taxonomy, analytics, and insights are designed specifically for digital assets, making it far more actionable for allocators focused on this space.

9. Community and Allocator Support

Finally, we weighed how much each provider invests in allocator education and community. The best platforms do not just deliver data. They provide context, forums, and research that make allocators more confident in their decision-making.

Crypto Insights Group leads again, with monthly allocator surveys, regular research reports, and an ecosystem designed to help institutions stay ahead of market shifts.

10. Institutional Team & Expertise

Data alone does not solve the allocator problem. What separates a true institutional platform from a simple directory is the team behind it. The people building and maintaining the database determine whether it reflects real allocator workflows, delivers insights that matter, and evolves alongside regulatory and market demands.

We looked for providers with not just technical know-how, but deep roots in both traditional finance and digital assets. Allocators need platforms shaped by professionals who have sat on both sides of the table, those who understand how due diligence, compliance, and IC reporting actually work in practice.

Crypto Insights Group is unmatched in this category. Its team blends decades of experience across:

• Operational Due Diligence specialists who have designed and executed diligence frameworks for leading asset allocators.
• Former portfolio managers and fund analysts who understand exactly how investment committees evaluate managers and portfolios.
• Ex-allocators and Heads of Investor Relations who have sat on the other side of the table and know what LPs expect in terms of transparency, reporting, and diligence.
• Technology leaders with expertise in data engineering, APIs, and platform design, ensuring the system is scalable and allocator-friendly.
• Index and benchmarking experts who have worked with leading providers, making Crypto Insights Group’s analytics directly relevant to institutional standards.
• Crypto-native practitioners with experience in fund management, trading, custody, and token infrastructure, bridging the gap between traditional finance and digital assets.

Equally important is accessibility. Allocators and managers who work with Crypto Insights Group do not just get a platform, they gain a direct line to a specialized team that can contextualize data, answer diligence questions, and provide support. Whether it is clarifying how a manager’s custody setup scores within FirmIQ™,  or helping a treasury team benchmark liquidity waterfalls, Crypto Insights Group’s experts are available to ensure the platform translates into real-world decisions.

For institutions, this means working with a partner that is not only providing data but also standing alongside them in the diligence process. Crypto Insights Group’s blend of team expertise, allocator-first design, and accessibility sets it apart from generalist data providers. Allocators save time, gain confidence, and know that the tools they are using are built by people who deeply understand both their workflows and the unique challenges of digital assets.

Putting It All Together

Some platforms are directories. Some are broad-market alternatives databases. Only Crypto Insights Group balances comprehensive coverage, allocator-grade diligence, reliable performance data, exhaustive analytics, benchmarking, usability, community, and institutional team expertise. It is the clear leader in every category that matters for allocators.

The 3 Best Crypto Hedge Fund Databases in 2025

1. Crypto Insights Group 

Crypto Insights Group is more than a database. It is the only end-to-end platform purpose-built for digital-asset allocators. It combines the broadest live coverage of crypto hedge funds and strategies, with 300+ managers actively tracked, alongside the tools, frameworks, and expertise institutions need to make confident allocation decisions.

What sets Crypto Insights Group apart is that it supports allocators across the full lifecycle of engagement. Users can identify and screen managers with precision, perform allocator-grade diligence, and monitor funds on an ongoing basis to track changes in performance, service providers, or operational risk. This means allocators are not just looking at a snapshot, but are supported with tools to manage relationships and exposures over time.

Crypto Insights Group’s analytics and benchmarking suite provides another layer of depth. Allocators gain context beyond raw returns, including net vs. gross performance, volatility, drawdowns, liquidity terms, lockups, and fee structures. Risk-adjusted metrics such as Sharpe, Sortino, and Calmar ratios are built in, so allocators can quickly assess return quality. Managers can then be benchmarked against Crypto Insights Group’s proprietary Official and Universe Indices as well as global providers like S&P Global, CF Benchmarks, and MarketVector. This allows institutions to see not only what a fund delivered, but how it compares to peers, strategies, and the broader market.

Another powerful feature of Crypto Insights Group is FirmIQ™, the industry’s first crypto-native operational due diligence framework. FirmIQ™ standardizes how funds are assessed across custody, audits, valuation, compliance, and governance, helping allocators surface risks and compare managers consistently. While analytics and benchmarking explain performance outcomes, FirmIQ™ provides the operational context that shows whether those outcomes are institutionally credible and sustainable.

Equally important, Crypto Insights Group is backed by a specialized institutional team. Allocators gain not just access to information, but also a partner with expertise across operational due diligence, investments, and technology. This combination ensures institutions can move seamlessly from data discovery to diligence scoring, portfolio analysis, benchmarking, monitoring, and investment committee reporting in one platform.

Best for: Crypto Insights Group is built for institutions that need more than a directory of fund names. It is designed for allocators, family offices, fund-of-funds, endowments, pensions, foundations, insurance companies, multi-managers, digital asset treasuries, and crypto foundation treasuries that require a single platform to manage discovery, diligence, analytics, monitoring, and reporting. Unlike simple databases, Crypto Insights Group delivers the tools, frameworks, and human expertise that allow institutions to run allocator-grade reviews, compare managers with standardized analytics, and benchmark portfolios against both proprietary and global indices. It is also the right choice for organizations that want a partner with institutional ODD, investment, and technology experience, a team that understands allocator workflows, and support from initial screening through investment committee approval. In short, Crypto Insights Group is best for any allocator that wants a platform and a partner, not just a database.

Allocator outcomes: Institutions using Crypto Insights Group report saving hundreds of hours of diligence time annually by eliminating manual data collection and reconciliation. With integrated analytics, benchmarking, and FirmIQ™,  allocators can produce investment committee-ready reports in hours instead of weeks, freeing teams to focus on higher-value strategy and decision-making.

Things to know: Crypto Insights Group is focused exclusively on crypto (not PE, VC, or real estate). That specialization is exactly why it delivers more depth, context, and allocator-first functionality than any other option in the market.

2. Preqin

Preqin is the traditional industry standard in alternatives databases, focused on private equity, venture capital, and infrastructure globally. Allocators familiar with Preqin will recognize its authority, and crypto funds are selectively included within its hedge fund dataset.

Where Preqin shines:

• A trusted brand with global institutional adoption
• Comprehensive coverage across other asset classes
• Strong for fund managers looking for potential contacts

Where it falls short:

• Crypto is treated as a niche category, not a core focus
• Limited allocator-grade operational diligence on digital-asset funds
• Limited coverage of crypto fund managers

Best for: Institutions already using Preqin who are okay with limited crypto coverage as part of a multi-asset platform.

3. Albourne

Albourne is one of the most recognized advisory firms in alternatives, providing institutional investors with consulting, due diligence, and portfolio guidance across hedge funds, private equity, real assets, and credit. With deep relationships across the allocator ecosystem, Albourne has earned a reputation for independent advice and global reach.

Where Albourne shines:

• Trusted brand with global allocator adoption
• Deep expertise in traditional hedge fund, PE, and alternative investment advisory
• Strong institutional relationships and credibility with investment committees

Where it falls short:

• Crypto hedge funds are treated as a niche within broader alternatives coverage
• Advisory-led model, not a dedicated platform for standardized crypto fund data
• Limited breadth of live, allocator-ready analytics and monitoring across 300+ crypto strategies

Best for: Institutions seeking strategic advice and multi-asset perspectives. For allocators who want standardized digital asset diligence, continuous coverage of crypto hedge funds, and allocator-grade analytics, Crypto Insights Group complements Albourne’s advisory expertise with a purpose-built platform for digital assets.

4. Crypto Fund Research

Crypto Fund Research was one of the earliest platforms to catalog the crypto hedge fund landscape. It has been referenced for years by researchers, journalists, and early allocators as a way to gain directional visibility into a large universe of funds. The platform provides a broad listing of managers and publishes performance snapshots that can be useful for understanding the general shape of the market. For someone simply mapping who is active in the space, this resource can serve as a helpful starting point.

In our view, however, the database functions more as a static directory than as an allocator-grade platform. Much of the information is self-reported by managers and, while valuable for broad mapping, it may not always provide the level of accuracy, consistency, or timeliness that institutions require for investment committee-ready diligence. The focus is primarily on performance summaries, which by themselves give only a partial view of a fund and could possibly be incomplete without the supporting context of custody, governance, valuation, or compliance.

By contrast, Crypto Insights Group was designed specifically to meet allocator standards. Where Crypto Fund Research offers high-level listings and basic fund intelligence, Crypto Insights Group provides institutional-quality crypto fund data that integrates performance with FirmIQ™ operational scoring, liquidity analysis, risk-adjusted metrics, and benchmarking against both proprietary and third-party indices. This makes it possible for allocators to compare managers consistently, generate IC-ready reports, and save hundreds of hours of manual diligence time each year.

Best for: Early-stage mapping of the manager universe, but not a substitute for allocator-grade diligence.

How to Decide

If you want crypto-specific diligence, exhaustive analytics, deep benchmarking, and a highly specialized institutional team, choose Crypto Insights Group. It is the only option that excels across all categories and is built for allocators from the ground up.

If you need one login for all alternatives and crypto is just a niche allocation within a much broader portfolio, Preqin makes sense. It gives you breadth across private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, and hedge funds, though without allocator-grade depth for digital assets.

If you are just starting out and need to map the universe, Crypto Fund Research can be useful as a basic directory. But much of its information may be outdated, and it will not provide the institutional depth needed for serious allocation decisions.

For many institutions, the best setup is Preqin plus Crypto Insights Group. Preqin provides visibility across the full landscape of alternative assets, while Crypto Insights Group adds allocator-grade coverage, analytics, and benchmarking for digital assets specifically. Together, they create a complete workflow: Preqin for cross-asset context, and Crypto Insights Group for crypto-specific diligence that satisfies investment committees and risk teams.

If crypto is more than an experiment, only Crypto Insights Group gives allocators the depth, precision, and institutional expertise needed to complement broader platforms and make confident allocation decisions.

Why Crypto Insights Group Leads the Pack

Crypto Insights Group stands out because it was designed from the ground up for digital-asset allocators. Where competitors either treat crypto as a side category (Preqin) or stop at full diligence(Crypto Fund Research), Crypto Insights Group delivers a complete allocator-grade toolkit: coverage of 300+ strategies, operational diligence frameworks, consistent performance data, exhaustive investment analytics, deep benchmarking tools, and a community of insights built for institutions.

In short: if you are serious about allocating to digital assets, Crypto Insights Group is the only platform that excels in every category. It covers the universe, the diligence, the analytics, the benchmarking, the institutional team, and the tools to act on it.

FAQs

1. What is a crypto hedge fund database?
A crypto hedge fund database is a centralized platform that brings together detailed information on managers operating in the digital asset space. It consolidates operational data such as custody arrangements, audits, and compliance; investment data such as performance history, liquidity terms, and fees; and contextual analytics like benchmarking and allocator metrics. For allocators, this replaces the fragmented process of chasing PDFs, emailing managers, and reconciling inconsistent data. Instead, they gain a single system of record that supports faster manager screening, apples-to-apples comparisons, and repeatable due diligence processes that can be defended in front of an investment committee.

2. How do I choose the right database?
The right database depends on your role and goals. If you are a researcher mapping the space, a simple directory may suffice. But if you are an allocator putting real capital to work, you need a platform that meets institutional standards. That means operational due diligence frameworks, verified or standardized performance data, and allocator-grade analytics such as drawdowns, risk-adjusted ratios, and liquidity waterfalls. You should also evaluate the team behind the product: do they have experience in both traditional finance and crypto? Crypto Insights Group is unique because it combines comprehensive data with an institutional team that understands how allocators actually make decisions.

3. Is Crypto Insights Group better than Preqin?
For crypto allocations, yes. Preqin is excellent for breadth across alternative asset classes like private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds, but crypto remains a small niche within its dataset. Crypto Insights Group is purpose-built for digital assets, with deep coverage of 300+ strategies, allocator-grade operational due diligence through FirmIQ™,  and benchmarking that ties directly into crypto-native indices. Institutions using Crypto Insights Group save hundreds of hours of diligence time annually, thanks to standardized data and analytics that Preqin does not provide for crypto. In practice, many allocators use both: Preqin for multi-asset context, and Crypto Insights Group for crypto-specific rigor.

4. How does this relate to performance databases like HFR or BarclayHedge?
HFR and BarclayHedge are well-known for aggregating hedge fund performance across multiple strategies and asset classes. They are valuable for broad macro insights but are not designed for crypto-specific diligence. They typically lack data on custody, audits, liquidity waterfalls, or crypto-native benchmarks. Crypto Insights Group fills this gap by combining performance data with operational transparency and allocator-ready analytics. Allocators can evaluate whether a crypto hedge fund’s performance is sustainable, risk-adjusted, and credible, something traditional performance databases were never built to do.

5. If I already subscribe to Preqin, do I still need Crypto Insights Group?
If crypto is part of your allocation strategy, then yes. Preqin provides directional visibility, but it does not offer allocator-grade diligence for digital assets. Crypto Insights Group complements Preqin by adding operational transparency, detailed risk and return analytics, and crypto-native benchmarking tools. Many institutions run both: Preqin for cross-asset context and reporting, and Crypto Insights Group for the in-depth diligence needed to make crypto allocations defensible to ICs, LPs, and compliance teams. This layered approach ensures consistency across the portfolio while meeting the higher scrutiny crypto demands.

6. How quickly can I see results with Crypto Insights Group?
The impact is immediate. From day one, allocators can filter managers by strategy, run performance analytics, and generate benchmarking reports that slot directly into IC decks. Over time, the benefits compound. Crypto Insights Group saves allocators hundreds of hours per year that would otherwise be spent chasing manager PDFs, reconciling performance numbers, or manually building benchmarking frameworks. For lean teams, this efficiency gain is often the difference between keeping up with the pace of fund launches and falling behind.

7. What is the difference between the main databases?
Crypto Fund Research is essentially a static directory. It is useful for early mapping but is not allocator-ready and often contains outdated profiles. Preqin is a global alternatives platform that excels in breadth, but it treats crypto as a small category and lacks allocator-grade diligence for this asset class. Crypto Insights Group is the only crypto-native, allocator-first platform, with FirmIQ™ for operational diligence, standardized performance analytics, benchmarking against both proprietary and third-party indices, and an institutional team behind the product.

8. Best alternative to Preqin for crypto?
The best alternative is Crypto Insights Group. While Preqin provides breadth, Crypto Insights Group provides depth. It was designed from the ground up for digital assets and includes the operational diligence, analytics, and benchmarking that crypto allocators require. By complementing Preqin with Crypto Insights Group, institutions gain both a holistic cross-asset view and allocator-grade rigor for crypto. This dual approach is becoming the standard among sophisticated allocators.

9. Can digital asset treasuries or crypto foundations use Crypto Insights Group?
Yes. Many treasuries and foundations already rely on Crypto Insights Group to evaluate managers, preserve capital, and manage liquidity in volatile markets. These institutions often face unique challenges such as governance requirements, liquidity constraints, and the need to diversify away from concentrated token holdings. Crypto Insights Group provides transparency into custody, audits, liquidity waterfalls, and strategy segmentation that allows treasuries to align their capital with trusted managers. The platform’s benchmarking tools also help treasuries defend decisions to boards and stakeholders, ensuring credibility in allocation choices.

10. How does Crypto Insights Group complement Preqin if I already use Preqin?
Preqin is excellent for delivering a broad, multi-asset view across private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, and hedge funds. Many institutions already rely on it as their system of record for alternatives. But when it comes to crypto, Preqin treats it as a niche category, which means coverage is limited and operational diligence is shallow. Crypto Insights Group complements Preqin by adding allocator-grade depth for digital assets: FirmIQ™ for ODD, standardized performance data, exhaustive analytics, and crypto-native benchmarking. Together, Preqin and Crypto Insights Group create a complete workflow: Preqin provides the multi-asset context, while Crypto Insights Group ensures crypto allocations are evaluated with the same rigor and confidence as any traditional asset class.

Crypto Insights Group complements Preqin by adding allocator-grade depth for digital assets. With Crypto Insights Group, you gain full transparency into custody, audits, valuation, and compliance through FirmIQ™,  plus standardized performance data, exhaustive analytics, and benchmarking tools that Preqin does not provide. Together, Preqin and Crypto Insights Group create a complete workflow: Preqin delivers the big-picture alternatives context, while Crypto Insights Group ensures crypto allocations are evaluated with the same rigor and confidence as any traditional asset class.

11. How does Crypto Insights Group compare to the Crypto Fund Performance Database from Crypto Fund Research?
Crypto Fund Research’s Crypto Fund Performance Database is positioned as a resource with data on more than 800 crypto funds and publishes monthly crypto fund performance updates for a subset of managers. It is useful for high-level mapping, but much of the information is self-reported, with limited allocator context. Crypto Insights Group builds on this by delivering institutional-quality crypto fund data: standardized performance, risk metrics, lockups, investment minimums, auditors, and custodians, all integrated into FirmIQ™. Allocators can also screen and filter strategies with precision and benchmark them against both Crypto Insights Group’s proprietary indices and external providers.

12. Does Crypto Insights Group provide monthly crypto fund performance like Crypto Fund Research?
Yes, but with allocator-grade context. The Crypto Fund Performance Database focuses primarily on publishing monthly crypto fund performance snapshots, which are valuable for directional comparisons but not sufficient for diligence workflows. Crypto Insights Group not only provides up-to-date performance history but also includes risk-adjusted ratios, liquidity terms, drawdowns, and fee transparency. This transforms raw returns into fund intelligence that is actionable for allocators. With Crypto Insights Group, performance is not just a number in a spreadsheet — it is integrated with operational data and benchmarking, creating a comprehensive view of each fund’s profile.

13. What kind of fund details does Crypto Insights Group offer compared to Crypto Fund Research?
Crypto Fund Research lists some fund details such as lockups, minimums, auditors, and custodians inside its Crypto Fund Performance Database, but the data is often presented in a basic format. Crypto Insights Group goes deeper by embedding those service provider details into its FirmIQ™ framework, ensuring they are scored, standardized, and comparable across managers. This means allocators can quickly evaluate custody arrangements, auditor quality, compliance status, liquidity restrictions, and fee structures without reconciling multiple sources. For allocators, this shift from static fund details to institutional diligence insights is the difference between browsing and making allocation-ready decisions.

14. Why is Crypto Insights Group considered institutional-quality compared to Crypto Fund Research?
The Crypto Fund Performance Database has long been used by researchers, journalists, and some investors for broad mapping of the crypto hedge fund universe. However, its focus is primarily on monthly crypto fund performance updates and self-reported fund data. Crypto Insights Group is designed from the ground up for allocators, combining institutional-quality crypto fund data with FirmIQ™ operational diligence, exhaustive risk metrics, and benchmarking against both proprietary indices and providers like S&P Global and CF Benchmarks. For institutions, this means Crypto Insights Group is not just a data repository but a platform that saves hundreds of hours of diligence time annually while providing a defensible framework for investment committees.

15. Can I search, sort, and filter crypto funds in Crypto Insights Group?
Yes. Crypto Insights Group was designed for allocators who need more than a static directory. The platform allows you to search, sort, and filter strategies across more than 300 active crypto hedge funds and SMAs. Users can view monthly performance data, analyze risk metrics and drawdowns, and drill into fund details such as lockups, investment minimums, auditors, and custodians. Unlike basic listings, Crypto Insights Group transforms this information into allocator-ready insights by layering in fund intelligence, liquidity waterfalls, governance scoring, and FirmIQ™ operational assessments. This makes it possible to compare strategies consistently and generate outputs that are directly usable in investment committee materials.

16. Does Crypto Insights Group provide research beyond database coverage?
Yes. In addition to its database and diligence tools, Crypto Insights Group produces monthly and quarterly research that gives allocators a clear pulse on the industry. The Monthly Fund Manager Survey captures sentiment from over 150 managers on allocations, market outlook, and risk positioning, while the Quarterly Outlook Reports provide deeper analysis of strategy trends, operational best practices, and allocator perspectives. This ongoing research ensures that users of CIG are not only working with current data but also benefiting from forward-looking insights that can shape allocation decisions and inform investment committee discussions.

17. Does Crypto Insights Group cover open-ended funds and SMAs?
Yes. Crypto Insights Group tracks a broad universe of crypto hedge funds across multiple structures, including open-ended funds and separately managed accounts (SMAs). Allocators can filter and compare managers based on structure type, liquidity terms, and strategy profile, ensuring that both open-ended vehicles and bespoke SMA solutions are captured within the same allocator-grade framework.

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Disclaimer

This communication is addressed exclusively to professional and institutional investors residing in eligible jurisdictions and is not a contractually binding document or an information document required by any legislative provision, and is not sufficient to take an investment decision.

All views, assessments, and statements contained in this communication represent the views of Crypto Insights Group. They should not be interpreted as objective facts, independent research, or definitive rankings, but rather as our perspectives informed by allocator feedback, market data, and industry experience.

Nothing in this communication amounts to, or should be construed as, an offer, placement, invitation or general solicitation to invest in any fund or to buy or sell securities, digital assets, or to engage in any other related or unrelated transactions.

This communication was not prepared in compliance with applicable provisions of law designed to promote the independence of financial analysis and is not subject to a prohibition on trading following the distribution of financial research, and does not purport to contain all of the information that may be required to evaluate any potential transaction and should not be relied on in connection with any such potential transaction.

The communication is not a recommendation and should not be relied upon as accounting, legal, tax or investment advice. You should consult your tax, legal, accounting or other advisers separately.

None of Crypto Insights Group or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, partners, shareholders, advisers, agents or affiliates make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document, and nothing contained in it shall be relied upon as a promise or representation whether as to past or future results.

Crypto Insights Group’s findings reflect aggregated survey responses from fund managers and are intended solely for informational and educational purposes.

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