Swiss investor Rainer-Marc Frey is expanding his position in cryptocurrencies by investing in a prominent five-year-old alternative to bitcoin currently undergoing a revival, finews.com has learned.

The fund-of-hedge fund pioneer is going deeper into the cryptocurrency world, after an initial investment in a digital token asset manager and trader. Rainer-Marc Frey is putting some of what Swiss magazine «Bilanz» reports as his 1.25 billion Swiss franc fortune into feathercoin, according to a blog post on «Medium».

The move coincides with a foundation set up in Zug last week to foster and promote the five-year-old token's development and acceptance, which has got a fillip from the return of developer Peter Bushnell at year-end.

Returning to Feathercoin proper in the new year to start work on the 0.13 release. The 0.13 codebase gives us the latest soft forks and will then allow us to join other services like Lightning Network, BarterDEX and others that make use of newer tech. #Feathercoin #FTC — Peter Bushnell (@bushstar) December 17, 2017





Bushnell, who is based in Oxford, had worked as the tech chief on another coin project for roughly two years, but said last month he would focus on feathercoin. He is now balancing the development with commissioned work «which allows me to pay the bills and spend time on feathercoin,» he said in an online question-and-answer session earlier this month. The cryptocurrency forked or split off from litecoin in 2013.

Repeat Crypto Offender

Frey, among the billionaires spotted at a glitzy St. Moritz crypto confab in January, invested in feathercoin through Hyperion Capital, a Swiss vehicle backed by several wealthy investors.

He has dabbled in fintech and crypto investments since selling his hedge fund boutique to Man Investments 16 years ago: he is also an investor in Crypto Finance, a Zug-based investment firm which is seeking a bank license. He also owns a sizable stake in Leonteq, a derivatives boutique.

Feathercoin's foundation is flush enough to hire three developers, and is also setting aside coins to reward outside contributors. «The Feathercoin Development Foundation will kickstart further software development, and its resources will help see new and existing projects to completion,» the foundation said.

Courting Controversy

Feathercoin's foundation will be presided by Lucas Betschart, a Swiss cryptocurrency advocate, and include Bushnell, Swiss investor Oliver Wolfensberger, and Frey associate Stephan Masek as board members.

Swiss foundations have become the go-to legal structure for cryptocurrencies, but Switzerland has also courted controversy because of them. Tezos, a prominent cryptocurrency project, became mired in a months-long bitter feud between its foundation head and U.S.-based developers following a record $232 million fund-raising.