Panther Hollow launches multi-strategy merchant bank focused on compliant RWA and yield strategies

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.

The firm features three core vehicles, including a pre-seed venture fund targeting crypto and AI infrastructure, a liquid yield fund blending RWA private credit with institutional-grade DeFi strategies, and a dedicated StarkNet strategy available exclusively to liquid yield investors. 

Swartz noted the idea for Panther was formed during the post-FTX bear market, when he and Escobar began taking equity instead of traditional legal fees from founders. It also draws inspiration from Water Cooler Studios, a venture-backed web3 studio that has incubated apps like Kintsu on Monad and Cenote on Canton, to which Panther has acted as a trusted advisor.

Panther is currently incubating onchain lending, repo, and derivatives protocol Stark Rates, which operates across Ethereum, Solana, Canton, and StarkNet. The firm is also gearing up to host accelerators for apps on each of those blockchains, Swartz said.

The firm is particularly interested in founders working on privacy, formal verification, quantum resistance, and interchain intents, and apps working to attract women into crypto, Swartz said.

“The only way to make DeFi as great as it can be is for it to have a confluence with TradFi and become as big or bigger than TradFi,” Swartz said.

Swartz, who started on the CFTC enforcement division, previously worked at Framework Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, and major law firms, while Escobar is a fintech and web3 attorney with an LL.M. from Penn Carey Law and Wharton MBA studies. Chief Financial Officer Andrea Perlak contributes 25 years of experience from KPMG, World Bank Treasury, and other institutions.