By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

(Reuters) – Gabe Plotkin was a hedge fund manager who had one of Wall Street’s most impressive investing records. On Wednesday, he told investors that he’d shut down Melvin Capital after the firm suffered losses of billions.

Plotkin, in a letter that was reviewed Wednesday by Reuters said “The proper next step is the winding down of the Funds through fully liquidating their assets and accounts and returning money to all investors”.

Melvin Capital’s assets stood at $7.8billion as of April 31st. A person with knowledge of the funds finances stated that the fund had experienced 23% losses since January.

These losses follow steep losses suffered by Melvin Capital in 2021, which ended the year with a 39% decline. Although the firm had hoped that GameStop’s shares would fall, it suffered when the stock was hit by retail investors who took the opposite view and sent it soaring.

It had $12.5 Billion in assets as of the 2021 start.

Plotkin wrote that he had previously raised significant cash, and that the fund’s exposure was reduced.

Plotkin spokesmen declined to comment.

Melvin made the largest investments in the second quarter, placing bets with Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE:). Hilton Worldwide Amazon (NASDAQ) and Datadog, (NASDAQ). There has been speculation that the stock prices of their stocks have dropped sharply over the past weeks.

Plotkin was a prominent investor in Steven A. Cohen’s hedge-fund SAC Capital Advisors. He launched his company after SAC admitted to criminal insider trading. Melvin Capital attracted powerful investors quickly and closed 2020 with 52.5% gains, which was the year that the pandemic started.