Many of the investors in the Pantera fund have not enjoyed its full 25,004 percent return. Some bought in at the beginning and then sold out when Bitcoin’s price was in a slow steady decline during 2014 and 2015. Others bought in during the current boom and have reaped only the returns that Bitcoin has experienced over the last year. Those still aren’t bad, at around 1,900 percent.

Those gains have given Pantera a lot of competition. More than 150 hedge funds focused on virtual currencies have been created this year, bringing the total number of such funds to 175, according to the research firm Autonomous Next.

Pantera estimated that in dollar terms, the fund has made $2.1 billion for its investors. Investors have taken out Bitcoins worth around $1.7 billion to hold for themselves, to avoid paying Pantera’s 0.75 percent annual fees. That has left Pantera holding coins worth $400 million. Overall, investors originally put about $150 million into the fund.

Like all hedge funds, Pantera is open only to accredited investors with significant assets. The minimum investment is $50,000.

The relatively straightforward strategy of the Pantera Bitcoin Fund, which has offices in San Francisco, could be replicated by small investors buying and holding Bitcoins.

But in its investor letter, Pantera noted that investors who go through Coinbase, the most popular service with small investors, pay fees ranging from 1.5 percent to 4 percent each time they buy or sell Bitcoin, creating more costs than Pantera charges its investors.

The Pantera Bitcoin Fund has developed strategies for buying and selling at good prices and also buys and holds an alternative to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, which was created this summer.