C1 Fund, which invests in late-stage companies that support digital-assets infrastructure, is actively working to tighten the spread between its share price and its net asset value (NAV), CEO Dr. Najam Kidwai said in a recent interview. The fund, organized as an exchange-listed closed-end vehicle, holds what management describes as "eleven high-conviction positions" and believes the market currently places less value on that portfolio than the fund's NAV indicates.
Kidwai laid out a "multi-pronged approach" that centers on raising investor awareness and delivering demonstrable portfolio outcomes. "A key contributor to many closed-end fund discounts is investor awareness and understanding. Investors don't yet have enough information, familiarity, or conviction to close the gap between the share price and underlying value," he said, stressing that education remains a core component of the strategy.
On the investor-engagement front, the fund has hired MZ Group to manage its investor relations program. That engagement has produced conference appearances, a non-deal roadshow in New York, targeted media placements and a cadence of earnings communications intended to increase familiarity with the fund's holdings and strategy.
Kidwai also emphasized the pursuit of sell-side coverage as part of the outreach campaign, saying research coverage can help reduce the "information and awareness gap with investors." The fund's view is that more public research and analyst attention would provide additional data points for prospective and current shareholders to assess the portfolio's value.
Beyond outreach, management views portfolio execution - namely IPOs, divestitures and mark-ups in the underlying holdings - as the single most forceful way to compel the market to re-evaluate the fund's intrinsic value. "Every IPO, every divestiture, every mark-up in our underlying holdings is a data point that forces the market to reassess the value sitting inside," Kidwai said.
One portfolio position highlighted by the CEO is BitGo, which has completed an initial public offering but whose shares remain under a contractual lockup until July 21, 2026. Kidwai declined to commit to a predetermined course of action for the BitGo stake once the lockup expires; instead, he said any decision would consider timing, pricing, broader market conditions and the fund's portfolio construction. He added that the fund's investment thesis does not rely on any single company or liquidity event.
Regarding liquidity and capital allocation, Kidwai reported that C1 Fund held $15 million in U.S. Treasury securities as of March 31, 2026. Management is selective about deploying that cash, requiring prospective investments to be late-stage businesses with a clear and credible path to a liquidity event. "There are favorable tailwinds in the market, and we are seeing a strong pipeline of late-stage companies that fit our mandate," Kidwai said, adding that the fund will not invest merely to put capital to work.
On the broader market for digital-asset companies, Kidwai described the IPO pipeline as "the most active it has been in several years." He pointed to confidential SEC submissions from Kraken in the fourth quarter of 2025 and Blockchain.com's similar confidential filing and indicated listing intentions for 2026 as meaningful indicators of momentum, while cautioning that neither company's timeline for listing is certain.
Operationally, the fund reported a net investment loss from operations of nearly $1 million, a shortfall Kidwai attributed to management fees and operating costs exceeding the modest interest income generated by the Treasuries held on the balance sheet. He characterized this result as "a normal feature of this type of fund structure in its early stages," and said the near-term objective is to grow NAV and realize gains over time rather than focus on minimizing accounting losses in the initial period.
"We're at an early stage, and we'd rather investors judge us on NAV growth and the quality of our exit realizations than on whether we've structured the fund to minimize accounting losses in year one," Kidwai said, underscoring the emphasis on eventual realizations and NAV accretion rather than short-term accounting metrics.
Context and implications
The fund's combined approach - enhanced investor relations, pursuit of analyst coverage and reliance on portfolio liquidity events - aims to address both the information asymmetry that often depresses closed-end fund prices and the tangible valuation events that change investors' assessments. For C1 Fund, success will depend on progress in all of these areas: convincing investors of the underlying asset values, securing independent sell-side analysis and generating liquidity or valuation milestones from portfolio companies.
For investors and market participants, the most immediate items to watch are any changes in coverage or outreach that materially increase public visibility, the expiry of the lockup for BitGo shares on July 21, 2026, and subsequent portfolio actions that could alter NAV or provide realized returns.
Note: This report summarizes management commentary and reported figures provided by the fund's CEO and does not add additional data beyond those statements.