In an interview with crypto.news, Selva Ozelli speaks with CKC Fund founder and managing director David Doss about institutional digital asset investing, risk management and the infrastructure needed to connect crypto strategies with professional investors.

The discussion also covers Bitcoin and Ethereum, AI and blockchain intellectual property, data centers, stablecoin regulation under the GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act and tokenization, as well as Doss’ outlook for the digital asset market through the rest of 2026.

David Doss is a digital asset fund manager, growth advisor, and marketing executive who serves as the founder and managing director of CKC Fund (CKC Management LLC). His work centers heavily on digital asset wealth management, blockchain infrastructure, compliance, and institutional risk standards. He sits on the board of ChainBLX (fostering corporate fintech events like Digital Davos) and authored the investor guide Digital Assets Decoded.

1. Tell us about your journey to founding CKC Fund.

My career has two chapters: a decade in research, education, and technology, followed by a decade in digital assets.

I started in academic research in 2005, including a Fulbright graduate research scholarship, before moving into education technology and growth leadership. That experience taught me to follow the evidence and build the operational scaffolding that turns good ideas into real businesses.

In digital assets, I kept seeing the same gap: strong traders on one side and serious investors on the other, without enough institutional infrastructure connecting them.

CKC exists to close that gap: not through better predictions, but through better architecture. We built around segregated portfolios, non-custodial execution, auditable NAV, and clear separation between the manager and investor assets. The structure came first, then the strategies. I’m convinced that’s the right order.

2. How did you get interested in digital assets?

I was drawn to the technology before the price. A financial ledger that anyone could independently verify represented a major shift from traditional systems built around trusted intermediaries.

I became interested in 2016. Today, that original promise is becoming practical through stablecoin payments, tokenized assets, and on-chain proof of holdings.

3. Tell us about the investment strategy and philosophy of CKC Fund.

In a market this volatile, the durable edge is risk management — not prediction.

We separate market exposure, momentum, yield strategies, and longer-term private investments rather than blending them into one portfolio. Each has a different risk profile.

Custody is equally important. Our traders can execute strategies without being able to withdraw investor assets. We also size positions for the drawdowns we can withstand, not the returns we hope to make.

My background in internationally competitive épée fencing taught me something similar: winning is less about moving fastest than controlling distance and choosing the right moment.

4. How much do you have in assets under management?

We don’t publicly disclose current fund-level AUM, but over my career, I’ve consulted on or managed more than $100 million across digital asset strategy, growth, and fund operations.

5. Which digital assets do you invest in?

We focus primarily on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a small group of highly liquid digital assets.

Liquidity comes first. We need to know we can exit a position in a stressed market without moving the market ourselves. We also look for a real economic purpose and enough derivatives-market depth to manage risk. If we can’t explain the asset or model the exit, we don’t invest.

6. Are you investing in AI and blockchain intellectual-property ventures?

Yes, selectively. We’re interested in defensible intellectual property in AI-enabled media, including patents and equity in the companies developing them.

Those investments sit in a dedicated vehicle, ART SP, rather than being mixed with liquid digital assets. The risks and timelines are completely different.

As AI models become cheaper and more widely available, lasting value will increasingly come from proprietary data, distribution, and enforceable intellectual property.

7. How about data centers, orbital data centers, and platform technologies?

They’re promising, but they’re at very different stages.

Traditional data centers are investable now. AI’s constraints increasingly involve power, grid access, and physical capacity, not just chips.

Orbital data centers are much earlier-stage. The potential is real, but so are the engineering risks and dependence on launch costs. I view them as frontier venture investments, not predictable infrastructure assets.

Platform technologies may offer the most capital-efficient opportunity. Software that manages, verifies, and transacts around computing resources can scale without owning the entire physical layer.

8. Has the enactment of the GENIUS Act made investing in stablecoins easier?

It has made stablecoins easier to use by clarifying standards around reserves, audits, and redemptions. That gives banks and institutions greater confidence.

It has also made the business model more competitive. Because issuers cannot pay interest directly, more value is shifting toward exchanges, wallets, and distribution platforms.

The next major issue is stablecoin rewards. Banks see them as competition for deposits; crypto platforms see them as a way to share value with users.

9. What are your thoughts on the impact of the CLARITY Act cloture vote failing?  Will this slow down tokenization?

The CLARITY Act could give digital assets a clearer path from securities treatment to commodity treatment as their networks become more decentralized. The industry needs rules it can follow in advance, rather than discovering the boundaries through enforcement.

If the Act fails, tokenization won’t stop. More activity will simply move offshore or remain inside private markets.

The United States risks losing market share, jobs, and influence … and ordinary investors may have less access to the benefits.

10. Digital assets are showing a late-year price recovery in 2026. What are your market predictions for the rest of 2026?

I don’t give short-term price targets. I focus on the conditions driving the market.

The 2026 decline looked more like an orderly reduction in leverage than a breakdown of the system. Exchanges kept operating, stablecoin infrastructure held up, and no major intermediary failed. That’s meaningful progress.

For the rest of the year, I’m watching global liquidity, how quickly leverage returns, and whether Bitcoin can break through recent resistance. A gradual recovery would be healthier than another fast, heavily leveraged rally.

11. Anything else you would like to add?

Investors should ask every manager a simple question: “Who verified the numbers, and when?” A return, valuation, or track record is only as reliable as the process behind it. The industry has made enormous progress on infrastructure. It now needs the same discipline in reporting and transparency.

12. How can people reach you?

Email: [email protected]

Web: 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidambrosedoss

X: @DDossAttack

I’m always glad to hear from journalists, researchers, investors, founders, and others working in digital assets, AI, and market infrastructure.

About the Author:
Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA, is an international digital asset legal expert and author of Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally and an award winning artist.  Her writings are translated into 45 languages and republished in over 200 global publications.  She is recognized as an expert media/TV commentator on global AI,  digital asset regulation, tax, and technology matters.