An in-depth look at Tiger Global, the secretive hedge fund and VC firm led by Chase Coleman, as its huge bets on booming tech stocks led to a $25B+ loss by June
Secretive hedge fund Tiger Global changed the rules on tech investing. Then it all went bad. Tweets: @acfou , @nymag , @jcoviedo6 , @walt373 , @churchillcap1 , @alderlaneeggs , @gnoble79 , @buccocapital , and @buccocapital Tweets: Dr. Augustine Fou / @acfou : completely not unexpected “Well-known Tiger investments such as Peloton, Roblox, Uber, Robinhood, Warby Parker, and Carvana have been among the biggest losers in U.S. markets — in some cases down more than 90 percent.” https://nymag.com/... @nymag : Secretive hedge fund Tiger Global changed the rules on tech investing. Then it all went bad. @mcelarier reports https://nymag.com/... JC Oviedo / @jcoviedo6 : “The meltdown at Coleman's firm, named Tiger Global in a nod to his mentor, is one for the ages. “Their losses look to be the biggest in the history of hedge funds,” says one hedge-fund manager, ticking off other notable contenders for that unfortunate title.” https://twitter.com/... Walter / @walt373 : Indexes look oversold and due for a bounce but remember big picture if knife catching popping bubbles. VC losses haven't even been recognized yet. Crypto having its 1929 moment. And the Fed's your enemy this time. https://nymag.com/... @churchillcap1 : I have been saying this for months. Tiger is no longer the same, the crop of analysts there now are not wall street's brightest anymore. https://nymag.com/... Marc Cohodes / @alderlaneeggs : Tiger Global: ‘Poster Child’ of the Tech Meltdown @mcelarier did her self proud here.. Good to see The Old Bird can still write https://nymag.com/... George Noble / @gnoble79 : Chase Coleman is a case study of what is wrong with markets. Born on third base,he incinerates billions with his reckless strategy but personally retains big $$$. Shameful, truly shameful. Chase and @CathieDWood are made for each other. https://nymag.com/... @buccocapital : Also does anyone know how Chase has managed to only have that one picture of himself on the internet? That's some Avon Barksdale shit @buccocapital : If I were a hedge fund, I would simply hedge my fund https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The New York Magazine profile lands mid-collapse for a firm that had just been the most aggressive investor in venture: Tiger Global did 361 startup deals in 2021, more than any other US investor, deploying at peak valuations even as the market crested. Weeks before this piece ran, the firm had already told investors it was abandoning its signature strategy of backing large, late-stage startups ahead of IPOs (a February pivot that signaled the crossover playbook was breaking).
What makes the story resonate beyond one fund's P&L is the pattern: the same names Tiger concentrated in — Peloton, Roblox, Uber, Robinhood, Warby Parker, Carvana — became the market's biggest losers, some down more than 90%. Commentators like Marc Cohodes and George Noble framed it as recklessness that burned billions while Coleman kept his personal fortune, turning a fund story into a referendum on how crossover capital reshaped tech pricing.
First-order effects
- Limited partners in Tiger Global's funds absorb the direct hit — over $25B in losses by June, concentrated in the firm's crowded tech positions rather than spread across the market.
- Chase Coleman faces a credibility crisis with investors: the February retreat from late-stage pre-IPO deals now reads as an admission the old strategy was unsustainable, not a tactical adjustment.
Second-order effects
- Tiger's exit from late-stage dealmaking removes a price-setting buyer from the unicorn market, accelerating markdowns across the private portfolios of every crossover fund that followed its template.
- Rival hedge funds built on the same model — including Coatue Management, founded by ex-Tiger Global employees managing $50B+ — come under pressure to prove their private-book marks aren't carrying the same air.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the public-private crossover fund structure that let hedge funds set startup valuations gets unwound, forcing a return to separation between the two markets — a shift later coverage frames as the COVID-era unicorn bubble bursting ahead of the AI boom, with Tiger's long-only fund down 63.6% in Q2 as the emblematic casualty.
- The episode becomes the case study cited when regulators and LPs scrutinize how concentrated, momentum-following capital inflates and then deflates entire sectors — the concentration dynamic that resurfaces wherever hot capital pools.
The trend: Crossover funds that blurred the line between public and private tech investing are being forced back toward discipline as the COVID-era unicorn bubble deflates.