Hilbert Group bolsters institutional crypto push with $25 million Enigma Nordic deal
Swedish investment firm Hilbert Group has acquired high-frequency crypto trading platform Enigma Nordic in a deal valued at up to $25 million, the companies announced Friday. The acquisition gives Hilbert full ownership of Enigma's proprietary trading system, which executes market-neutral strategies across global digital asset exchanges.Hilbert will pay $7.5 million in newly issued shares at closing, with an additional $17.5 million in earn-outs contingent on Enigma's strategies generating $40 million in cumulative net income. Shares issued to Enigma's founders are subject to a three-year lock-up with clawback provisions if performance targets are missed.Enigma, founded by Andereas Friis and Jonas Söderqvist, has executed over SEK 50 billion (roughly $5.4 billion) in trading volume so far in 2025. The company claims its quantitative strategies have delivered a Sharpe ratio exceeding 3.0 — a performance benchmark rarely achieved in scalable, market-neutral digital asset strategies. Friis and Söderqvist previously built and listed digital marketing company Speqta on Sweden's Nasdaq First North exchange before launching Enigma in stealth mode in 2024."Enigma brings both cutting-edge technology and an entrepreneurial team with a proven track record of building and scaling public companies," Hilbert CEO Barnali Biswal said in a statement.The acquisition advances Hilbert's broader institutional crypto push. The firm's asset management arm, Hilbert Capital, launched a Bitcoin-denominated hedge fund with Xapo Bank in late 2024 with $200 million in initial capital. Hilbert plans to integrate Enigma's platform into its hedge fund offerings and proprietary trading desk, with new products expected in the coming quarters.While Enigma's trading volume signals high activity, high-frequency strategies carry inherent risks. HFT typically operates on thin margins and faces "alpha decay," or the tendency for returns to diminish as capital scales. Hilbert appears to be mitigating these risks through the performance-linked deal structure.Crypto M&A activity has picked up in 2025 as the market matures. Top venture capital firms had predicted a more active deal-making landscape this year, driven by regulatory clarity and renewed interest from traditional finance players.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.