Titan Crypto Review 2022: Pros, Cons, Features, & Pricing

Traditionally, investing with a hedge fund requires being an accredited investor and having hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest.

And for cryptocurrency, there’s still a lack of beginner-friendly, actively managed crypto funds you can invest with.

Titan, a company that lets you invest in actively managed portfolios starting with just $100, is aiming to change this fact. Plus, with its new crypto fund, you can invest in various cryptocurrencies without having to use a cryptocurrency exchange and research coins on your own.

If you want to diversify your portfolio with crypto and need a helping hand, Titan Crypto could be the solution you’re looking for.

Pros And Cons

About Titan

Titan is a New York based Fintech company that began in 2018. Since its inception, Titan’s goal has been to provide everyday investors with the same level of active investing options wealthy investors have access to.

Currently, Titan has 35,000 clients and over $750 million in assets under management (AUM). This is relatively small in the world of investment funds. Robo-advisors Betterment and Wealthfront each have over $20 billion in AUM.

However, Titan is a newer player in the managed investing space. Additionally, Titan’s investing philosophy is different from many passive investing options and your average robo-advisor.

According to Titan, too many ordinary investors are told to just park their money in an ETF and to accept average returns. At Titan, the goal is to grow at a higher rate of return by putting your money to work in the best businesses and asset classes Titan’s team identifies.

What It Offers

Titan is often called a hedge fund, but this isn’t technically true. Titan is actually a SEC-registered investment advisor as it states in its disclosure. In reality, this means Titan is closer to a robo-advisor than a hedge fund.

Furthermore, Titan’s co-founder Clayton Gardner has made it clear that Titan is trying to create something different.

In a TechCrunch interview, Gardner stated “We all came from the world of having worked at hedge funds and private equity firms like Goldman Sachs. We spent five years doing that and ultimately were very frustrated that the experiences and products we were building for wealthy people were completely inaccessible to people who weren’t rich or didn’t have a fancy suit.”

To help accomplish its goal of creating fairer investing opportunities to help people build wealth, Titan offers several features and funds you can invest in.

Titan Crypto

One of Titan’s newest features is its cryptocurrency fund. If you want to put your money to work in crypto but don’t know where to begin, Titan’s hand-picked cryptocurrency investments are an alternative to DIY investing.

According to Titan, its crypto investing philosophy uses fundamental research and data to find opportunities in large-cap cryptocurrencies with the best risk versus reward potential.

In other words, this means Titan is investing in leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Titan also invests in several altcoins like Cardano and Solana. The company partners with Apex Crypto, an SEC registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and the SIPC, to operate.

Titan’s crypto fund invests in approximately 5 to 10 cryptocurrencies at a given time. You only need $100 to invest in Titan Crypto, so it’s as beginner-friendly as using exchanges like Coinbase or Gemini to buy crypto yourself.

For portfolio management, Titan’s investing team monitors performance and may rebalance if the performance of its original investing thesis changes or encounters new risks. The fund began in August 2021 and has since seen a 329.8% annualized return.

Granted, this return doesn’t have much history, and the fund began during a cryptocurrency bull run. Titan even discloses that these are short-term results and not indicative of future performance.

However, if you believe in the future of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi), diversifying your portfolio with digital assets could make sense. And, with a $100 investment minimum, Titan Crypto certainly makes it easy to get started.

Other Investment Funds

Titan Crypto is a new Titan fund. However, Titan has three other funds with different investing strategies you can utilize:

• Titan Flagship: Contains large cap, predominantly U.S. stocks. The goal of this fund is to invest in 15 to 25 companies and outperform the S&P 500 index.
• Titan Opportunities: This fund targets 15 to 25 smaller U.S. companies that Titan believes have exceptional growth potential.
• Titan Offshore: This international-focused fund invests in 15 to 25 companies in emerging and developing markets like China and Latin America.

The reason Titan is often confused for a hedge fund is that it invests similarly to hedge funds. Titan uses hedge fund holding reports to invest in many of the same assets. You can also short between 0% to 20% of the market depending on your risk tolerance. However, unlike a hedge fund, each Titan client gets a separate account rather than having their funds pooled with other investors.

The minimum balance for Titan Flagship is $100 just like Titan Crypto. To invest with Titan Opportunities or Offshore, you need at least $10,000 in deposits across Titan or to have two referrals.

Titan Flagship is the most popular Titan fund. According to Titan, this fund has seen 20.4% annualized returns since its inception in February 2018. Overall, one of Titan’s advantages is that you can choose various funds to diversify your portfolio with crypto and stocks.

Account Types

Currently, Titan supports taxable investment accounts as well as Traditional and Roth IRA accounts. You can rollover an IRA, 401(k), and 403(b) into Titan IRA as well.

Titan Crypto, however, is currently only available in taxable accounts. Titan says that it's actively working with its custodian to be able to offer a self-directed IRA option for Titan Crypto soon.

Related: How To Invest In Crypto In Your IRA or 401k

Mobile App

Titan has a free mobile app for Android and iOS that lets you view and manage your portfolio from your smartphone. You can also create a Titan account through the mobile app versus signing up with the web version.

Pricing & Fees

Titan doesn’t charge fees for performance, deposits, or withdrawals. However, you pay annual advisory fees depending on the balance of all your Titan accounts:

• $10,000 Or More: Pay a 1% annual advisory fee.
• Under $10,000: Pay $5 per month from a linked bank account.

It’s worth noting you only pay one fee regardless of how many account types you have. So, if you have $5,000 in a Titan IRA and $3,000 in a Titan individual account, you only pay $5 in fees, not $10. Additionally, if the total value of your Titan holdings is $10,000 or more, you pay 1% regardless of having individual accounts with under $10,000 in assets.

Paying 1% in annual advisory fees is steep compared to robo-advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront which only charge 0.25% annually. However, you’re getting active management and way more exposure to crypto than most robo-advisors offer.

And Titan is quite affordable compared to hedge funds which often charge around 2% in management fees and up to 20% in performance-based fees. From this perspective, Titan falls in the middle between low-fee robo-advisors and more expensive hedge funds with active management.

Titan Crypto Alternatives

If you want to invest in actively managed funds, you can use an online broker to invest in mutual funds. Vanguard, while more known for its index funds, also had very affordable active funds with strong performance records.

In this sense, Titan isn’t doing anything too revolutionary. However, Titan does take research and due diligence off your plate. It also offers more crypto exposure than most of the competition.

But how does Titan compare versus popular robo-advisors which also handle asset allocation? Here's a quick look:

Titan Crypto is one appealing perk of investing with this platform. Online stock brokers and robo-advisors are gradually adding crypto support, but having an actively managed fund of 5 to 10 coins is a unique selling point.

Wealthfront is a good alternative since it lets you invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum through Grayscale’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Trusts. However, Titan Crypto is superior to other robo-advisors if you want the most crypto exposure possible.

Customer Service

Titan has a customer support Help Desk that has answers for common questions you might have. You can also use live chat to get a reply from a customer service representative. You can also email [email protected]. Titan states it takes approximately one day to get back to questions.

Account Opening Process

You open a Titan investing account on its website or with its mobile app. There are a few requirements to meet, including:

• Being 18 or older
• Having a Social Security Number
• Having a legal U.S. residential address within the 50 states
• Being a U.S. citizen, green card holder, or valid visa holder

This is similar to KYC requirements crypto exchanges require, and you have to verify your bank account as well by confirming two small deposits Titan makes.

Safety & Security

Titan works with Apex Clearing Corporation as its custodian. This means your investments and cash are SIPC-insured up to $500,000 in the event Titan goes out of business or suffers losses for some reason.

Titan also invests with a long-term philosophy, and many of its investments are the exact same positions massive hedge funds have. Theoretically, this should mean short-term volatility is less important since you’re investing for the long-run.

That said, there aren’t performance guarantees. Furthermore, Titan Crypto may be more volatile than traditional investments given the nature of cryptocurrency price movements, so keep this risk factor and volatility in mind before investing.

The Bottom Line

These days, you don’t need a lot of money to invest in crypto. For example, exchanges like Coinbase and Gemini let you begin investing with just $2. You can also look into passive income opportunities like Celsius or opening a crypto savings account.

However, there is a lack of managed cryptocurrency investing options. Many robo-advisors aren’t adding crypto into portfolios quite yet or are just sticking with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. So, if you want a more actively managed crypto portfolio with numerous coins, Titan is compelling.

The most affordable way to invest in crypto is still to use your own wallet and buy crypto yourself since this cuts out more middlemen. But if you want a helping hand with a hedge fund twist, Titan Crypto is for you.

Titan Crypto Features