As Sage Capital Management has made digital assets easier for financial institutions by combining banking, market access, capital solutions, and the Sage platform into one regulated environment. It’s not a bank, it’s not a trading platform, and it’s not a lender or a prime broker. Instead, it’s a combination of all these elements – a complete operating system for digital assets.
The firm offers integration over fragmentation, encompassing regulation and transparency, real-time data and a single governance, risk and compliance framework.
But it wasn’t always like this. Once upon a time Sage Capital Management was actually a hedge fund.
We sat down with Nathan Sage, Founder & CEO, to find out how the company has evolved since it was started back in 2015 and discussed how the management team identified a niche in the market, successfully transitioning from a buy-side hedge fund into a full sell-side business.
From Hedge Fund to a Complete Operating System for Digital Assets
Sage Capital Management began in the mid-2010s as a cryptocurrency hedge fund and quickly scaled its operations. By 2016, the firm was executing around $1 billion in Bitcoin volume on its busiest trading days.
“The pain of trading that kind of volume was because of liquidity costs… it was about $200 a Bitcoin back then. But also, the infrastructure and the technology… nothing was in place,” said Sage.
“We made money as a fund, but it was the most difficult way of trading because of the fragmented infrastructure,” he recalled. “It cost us a lot of money.”
That frustration triggered a decisive pivot.
The team set about building its own brokerage operation, complete with direct relationships to market makers and a custom-built technology stack.
What started as an internal solution soon caught the attention of other market participants struggling with the same issues. Clients began increasingly approaching them, citing the firm’s expertise in navigating crypto liquidity and its reliable infrastructure.
This organic demand pushed the company beyond its own trading needs and into full-service prime brokerage. More recently, this has evolved into a comprehensive institutional operating system for digital assets.
Why More Hedge Funds Are Embracing Crypto: New AIMA Survey Shows 55% Adoption Rate
Hedge funds have sharply increased their exposure to digital assets this year.
According to the latest survey from the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), 55 per cent of traditional hedge funds now hold some form of crypto exposure, up from 47 per cent a year earlier.
The survey, conducted in the first half of 2025 among 122 institutional investors and fund managers with an estimated $982 billion in assets under management, points to growing mainstream acceptance.
Greater regulatory clarity has driven much of this increase, with new legislation in the US, along with dedicated regimes in the EU, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the UAE, shifting the landscape from years of enforcement-led uncertainty toward a more innovation-friendly environment.
Funds are accessing crypto through direct trading, derivatives, exchange-traded products, tokenised assets, and related equities, though most allocations remain modest.
Crypto markets have posted only moderate gains relative to traditional assets this year: Bitcoin is up roughly 9 percent year-to-date, trailing the S&P 500’s 16 percent rise and gold’s 53 percent surge, while Ether has gained less than 1 percent.
Around half of hedge funds with no crypto exposure have no near-term plans to enter the market. Lingering tax issues and restrictive mandates remain barriers, but the AIMA report highlights that removing them would encourage roughly half of non-invested respondents to consider allocations.
For firms like Sage Capital Management, this rising institutional interest highlights the growing need for professional-grade infrastructure.
From Buy-Side to Sell-Side
The shift from buy-side trading to infrastructure has transformed the business.
“If you look at valuations, then we’ve moved away from being a fund or a trading organisation to something much more valuable, and that is a complete financial infrastructure for digital assets,” Sage said.
“To develop what we’ve developed… you’re probably talking about three to five years of downtime to get to where we are,” he added.
Banking proved especially challenging. Many traditional banks lack the tools and expertise to handle blockchain flows comfortably.
“Banking is difficult,” Sage said. “I don’t think banks are particularly against crypto, many just don’t understand it… talking to a bank is very difficult because it’s like a different language. And this is where we can make a big difference.”
Launch of Private Banking Service for Institutional Crypto Clients
In January 2026, Sage Capital Management launched its private banking service, completing its evolution into a full institutional operating system for digital assets and transforming how institutional clients access, manage and deploy capital across digital markets.
The service combines banking, liquidity from over 40 venues, scalable credit, a proprietary trading platform, and back-office reporting in one regulated environment. Hedge funds, asset managers, and other institutional players can now manage fiat and crypto through a single counterparty.
A standout feature is the Embedded COO™, which is a dedicated senior specialist who acts as an extension of each client’s team, providing hands-on operational support.
Built on four core pillars of banking, market access, capital solutions, and the Sage Capital Management platform, it delivers unified onboarding that speeds up fund flows, lowers counterparty risk, and improves capital efficiency.
New Swiss Office in Zug’s Crypto Valley
The firm has recently opened an office in Zug, Switzerland, and secured SRO/VQF authorisation, recognised by FINMA, enabling spot digital asset trading and lending under Swiss AML rules.
“Switzerland is a great jurisdiction for us to be involved in,” Sage said. “It gives us a lot of credibility… and from a client’s perspective, Switzerland is a place that they like a lot.”
Nestled on the shores of Lake Zug, the town has earned its nickname as Crypto Valley, becoming a global hub for blockchain innovation.
Home to Ethereum’s early development, crypto-friendly banks, and a thriving ecosystem of fintech firms, Zug offers regulatory clarity, low taxes, and a collaborative environment that continues to attract leading digital asset companies.
Why Ripple Acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 Billion: The Rise of Crypto Prime Brokerage
Deals like Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road highlight the surging demand for ready-made, tested connectivity between traditional finance and digital assets, without forcing firms to spend years building the infrastructure from scratch.
Hidden Road, founded in 2018, quickly became one of the fastest-growing non-bank prime brokerage and clearing firms in the world.
In April 2025, Ripple announced its agreement to acquire Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, making it one of the largest M&A deals in the digital assets industry to date. The transaction closed in October 2025, after which Hidden Road was rebranded as Ripple Prime.
This milestone made Ripple the first crypto-native company to fully own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.
Crypto infrastructure still faces challenges around volatility, counterparty risk, and regulatory differences across jurisdictions. Sage Capital Management’s model, built from direct experience, aims to provide a consolidated, regulated gateway that reduces fragmentation and operational friction.
“We fundamentally just want to make institutional participation in digital assets easier,” Sage said.
As traditional banks and institutions deepen their involvement in digital assets, integrated platforms like Sage’s are set to play an increasingly important role.
Author: Ruben McCarthy
See Also:
Sage Capital Management Opens Swiss Entity and Receives Swiss Regulatory Approval
Swizterland and Crypto: a Match Made in Banking Heaven? | Disruption Banking
