New York metropolitan area-based Panther Hollow Ventures officially launched its multi-strategy merchant bank today, marking a significant step by former crypto attorneys Eric Swartz and Jacqueline Escobar into full-scale institutional crypto investing.
The firm, which combines venture capital, liquid yield strategies, and protocol incubation, will focus on proliferating traditional finance rates and derivatives protocols on Ethereum, Canton, Solana, and Starknet.
In an interview, Swartz told The Block the easiest way to describe Panther Hollow is as a combination merchant bank, fund complex, and brokerage focused on compliant RWA rails.
"In many ways we’re more like an operating company, but with an internal investment management business," Swartz said.
Rather than passive investing, the firm actively incubates and supports portfolio companies on both minority and majority bases, hoping to build a closed-loop “Build, Deploy, Administer, Compound” model designed to align capital formation, product development, and ecosystem growth.
