\n
![](\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/.image\/c_fit%2Ch_800%2Cw_1200\/MTk4ODAzNjU4Njg1NTU2NDg3\/bitcoin_alpha_press_release.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
At Bitcoin 2024 this past July, Samara Alpha Management<\/a> and Bitcoin Magazine Pro<\/a> selected Boreal<\/a>, a market neutral DeFi hedge fund, as the winner of this year\u2019s Bitcoin Alpha Competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n Boreal was awarded $1 million in seed capital as well as access to Samara\u2019s institutional-grade infrastructure to help manage its fund.<\/p>\n Boreal\u00a0stood out because of\u00a0its trading strategy, which utilizes various DeFi protocols to generate yield on top of US dollars, bitcoin and ether.<\/p>\n \u201cEven when things are super bearish, there’s always a way to generate returns in DeFi,\u201d said Boreal\u2019s founder Evan Morris, who has been in the crypto space since 2016 and who worked in traditional finance prior to that.<\/p>\n \u201cI began in this space four years ago managing outside money with two friends and then ended up joining a larger firm as a portfolio manager where I ran a DeFi strategy for a few years. More recently, I’ve launched Boreal, and now, with the help of Samara, we can really take things to the next level,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Adil Abdulali, Chief Investment Officer at Samara Asset Management and one of the judges in the competition, commented on why Samara is excited to partner with Boreal.<\/p>\n \u201cEvan is somebody who has a very good track record of work and the right risk framework for this type of strategy,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has trading maturity, and since crypto is a young market, somebody with several years of experience in DeFi is rare.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdulali also shared details on how Samara plans to support Morris.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought if there’s a way to quickly get him off the ground with all the infrastructure like admin, auditing, accounting, subscription docs, a bank account, BitGo accounts, etc. \u2014 all of which we have \u2014 then let\u2019s do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Moving forward, Morris sees bitcoin playing a much bigger role in the DeFi space.<\/p>\n \u201cWith bitcoin coming onto the DeFi scene, we’re able to do some of the same things that we were able to do with stablecoins over the past few years,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cDeFi 1.0 was very USDC- and Tether-based, but the future of DeFi is going to involve different types of wrapped bitcoin and bitcoin derivatives. And we’re happy to provide liquidity.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdulali also feels that bitcoin will play a bigger role in DeFi, and his firm is well-positioned to help Boreal capitalize on this.<\/p>\n \u201cBitcoin is not just like all other coins \u2014 it\u2019s some of the best collateral out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use bitcoin in our bitcoin-denominated fund, which we started over a year ago and which employs essentially the same type of strategies that our dollar-denominated market-neutral fund does. However, the fund transacts entirely in bitcoin,\u201d he added.<\/p>\nDeFi on Bitcoin<\/h2>\n