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Published By

Gregg Bell, HBAR Foundation

October 1, 2024

Former Valkyrie Co-Founder Launches New Digital Asset-Focused Investment Firm Focused on Delivering Innovative Investment Solutions in Crypto

Canary Capital Group LLC (“Canary Capital”), a digital asset-focused investment firm, today announced its official launch alongside the debut of its first trust offering, the Canary HBAR Trust (“the Trust”). Steven McClurg, former co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Valkyrie Funds, the issuers of the Valkyrie Bitcoin ETF, established Canary Capital to drive innovation and deliver actively managed private strategies to meet institutional demand for sophisticated cryptocurrency investment solutions.

“The accelerating demand for crypto offerings seems to be exponential since this year’s launch of Spot Bitcoin ETFs, yet there remains a gap regarding firms with institutional experience who are willing to continue to innovate and deliver solutions beyond retail products,” says Steven McClurg, Chief Executive Officer at Canary Capital. “We founded Canary to lead the way for the next iteration of actively managed crypto offerings with a focus on risk management and adaptive, strategic foresight.”

Canary’s HBAR Trust, the first dedicated HBAR investment vehicle in the United States, is a private offering that provides qualified investors secure exposure to HBAR – the native cryptocurrency that underpins the Hedera network. Hedera has emerged as the leading, enterprise-grade, distributed ledger technology that continues to see real growth potential, especially within the space of asset tokenization as well as other use cases such as NFT issuance, and web3 application development and deployment. The launch of the Trust potentially paves a path for future ETF HBAR-focused investment vehicles as investors seek new ways to access cryptocurrency.

“The launch of Canary Capital’s HBAR Trust is a first-of-its-kind access point for US institutions to acquire HBAR,” says Gregg Bell, Senior Vice President at The HBAR Foundation. “Now any RIAs or institutional capital in the US that was previously sidelined, despite recognizing the industry-leading scalability and performance of the Hedera network, can today acquire the HBAR token.

“As the most used network by transaction count, Hedera is a prime example of the type of enterprise technology that sits at the intersection of crypto and real-world scalability, making it the obvious choice for our first private offering at Canary,” says McClurg. “We see real growth within technology applications and look forward to bringing further compelling investment opportunities to investors.”

The Trust is available for investment by eligible individual and institutional accredited investors. The single-asset investment Trust is solely invested in HBAR.

Alongside McClurg, Canary Capital is also led by Josh Olszewicz, who serves as Portfolio Manager across all strategies and brings a wealth of investment and crypto expertise. Beyond The Trust, Canary also offers crypto hedge fund solutions including a crypto and fixed income barbell strategy specifically designed for sophisticated and institutional investors.

This press release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal, nor shall there be any sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

Disclaimer

Canary Capital intends to attempt to have shares of new products quoted on a secondary market. However, there is no guarantee that Canary Capital will be successful. Although the shares of certain products have been approved for trading on a secondary market, investors in the new products should not assume that the shares will ever obtain such an approval due to a variety of factors, including questions regulators, such as the SEC, FINRA, or other regulatory bodies may have regarding such products. As a result, shareholders of such products should be prepared to bear the risk of investment in the shares indefinitely. Certain products have not met their investment objective, and the shares of such products quoted on OTC Markets have not reflected the value of the digital assets held by such products, less such products’ expenses and other liabilities, but have instead traded at a premium over such value, which at times has been substantial. There have also been instances where the shares of certain products have traded at a discount.

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Steven McClurg

Founder, CEO

Prior to founding Canary, Steven co-founded and served as CIO of Valkyrie Investments, whose public funds business was acquired by CoinShares in 2024. He was previously a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, overseeing portfolio strategy for fixed income and private equity. He also founded Theseus Capital (acquired by Galaxy Digital) and served as an MD at Galaxy. Steven holds a Master of Science and MBA from Pepperdine University, where he has served as an adjunct professor.

Drew Hill

President, CLO

Drew is a seasoned digital asset attorney with deep expertise in securities law and fund compliance. Before Canary, he was GC and CCO at Valkyrie Investments and a key figure in Frost Brown Todd LLC’s Blockchain and M&A practice. He holds a BA in Finance & Spanish from the University of Oregon and a JD from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law.

Jamal Pesaran

Co-Chief Investment Officer

Jamal Pesaran, CFA, is Co-Chief Investment Officer for Canary Capital LLC. With 30 years of investment experience, he has extensive portfolio management, trade execution as well as client-facing experience.

As Senior Portfolio Manager with Guggenheim Partners, Jamal helped build the Guggenheim Equities business and developed the income focused and risk-managed strategies with AUM of over $4 Billion. With Morgan Stanley, as Senior PM and CIO for an Ultra High Net worth team, he managed both Active equity, fixed income strategies as well as overall portfolio allocations across alternative assets. Prior to joining Canary Capital, as Head of Capital Markets for Clifton AI, he helped develop and market a Gen-AI platform for Investment Research. His experience includes extensive portfolio management experience as Senior Equity Options Portfolio Manager, across European, US and Asian markets with Goldman Sachs and UBS Securities. He worked in Equity Derivatives Hedge Fund Sales with Lehman Brothers in New York and HSBC in Hong Kong.

He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson where he was awarded the Edward Carter Fellowship for academic performance in the top 2% of the class.

Josh Olszewicz

VP, Head of Trading

With over a decade in digital asset markets, Josh leads Canary’s trading strategy and research. He previously headed crypto research at BraveNewCoin, was a portfolio manager at Techemy Capital, and served as Head of Research at Valkyrie Investments. Josh holds a BS in Human Biology and an MS in Biotechnology, and formerly taught lab sciences at the university level.

Linnea Steffy

VP, Finance

Linnea leads finance at Canary Capital, overseeing FP&A, fund accounting, and mid-office operations across the firm’s hedge funds, private funds, and ETFs. A strategic finance expert with a decade of experience, she previously managed over $850M+ in operating budgets at Discovery Inc., where she partnered directly with executive and creative leadership on major US networks including HGTV, DIY, and GAC. Linnea began her career at KPMG and holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Amber Reedy

Invetor Relations

Amber has over 15 years of experience driving growth through investor engagement, partnership strategy, and cross-sector business development. She’s known for building long-term relationships with institutional allocators and key stakeholders. Her strength lies in unlocking new revenue streams and delivering measurable outcomes across verticals.

Redding Shelby

ETF Operations Lead

Redding leads ETF operations at Canary Capital, managing daily fund activities across trading, accounting, and finance responsibilities. He is a fund operations professional with over five years of experience in ETF administration and business management. His expertise spans transaction oversight, reconciliations, and compliance for ETFs with exposure to digital assets. At U.S. Bancorp, Redding was instrumental in launching '40 Act ETF products and supporting the administrative needs of a leading national service platform. He excels at identifying and implementing process improvements, and collaborating across business units to drive performance. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Ouachita Baptist University.

Alexis Busse

Executive Assistant

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in Kinesiology and a certificate in Athletic Healthcare, Alexis serves as Executive Assistant and Office Manager. She brings management experience in hospitality and fitness to her role, supporting executive initiatives and overseeing daily operations to ensure organizational efficiency and seamless coordination across the company.

Dylan Farnick

Associate Trader

With over a decade of experience in digital asset markets, Dylan brings a strategic approach to trading and research. He quickly honed his skills in navigating digital exchanges and futures trading, with research focused on post-mortem analysis. His expertise extends beyond trading to include UI/UX consulting, working on trading interfaces and documentation for various platforms including Kraken and Tradingview, as well as community management, where he provided direct product feedback as a liaison with the crypto trading community.

Bronson Kaufusi

Business Development

A former NFL athlete turned business strategist, Bronson blends on-the-field experience with data-driven leadership. He brings expertise in consulting, real estate, blockchain, and data analytics, and has led initiatives supporting startups and athletic organizations alike. He serves as a board member at UVU, Head of Player Development at OG1 Athletes, and is active in nonprofit and entrepreneurial networks.