- Billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund invested $200 million in crypto last year, according to a new report.
- Founders Fund exited the market prior the 2022 crash, with $1.8 billion in profits.
Founder Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, took advantage of a late summer slump in crypto prices in 2023, scooping up $200 million in Bitcoin and Ether, as reported by Reuters, based on two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Founder Fund was one of the earliest institutional investors in crypto, having made its first crypto investment in 2014. According to one of the people close to the fund who spoke with the FT in last January, the fund had exited crypto in March 2022 — after eight years — with $1.8 billion in returns — two months before the TerraUSD collapse that accelerated the market downturn.
The Monday report was the first indication of Thiel’s return to the market since the fund’s lucrative exit and shows that institutions were returning to crypto as early as mid-2023.
Bitcoin went through a period of stagnation in mid-to-late 2023, following a surge of nearly 100% in the first half of the year. It was during this phase, specifically from August to October, that the Founders Fund reportedly amassed Bitcoin and Ether. By November, the prices began to climb sharply again, with Bitcoin’s value soaring approximately 200% from its lowest point in 2023.
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Thiel is a co-founder of corporate behemoths PayPal and Palantir, and is an outspoken crypto enthusiast.
His VC firm wasn’t the only big player stacking crypto. Michael Saylor-led MicroStrategy purchased 56,650 Bitcoin in 2023, worth about $2.8 billion today. MicroStrategy now holds 190,000 Bitcoin, worth about $9.3 billion, according to data from tracker BitcoinTreasuries.
Wall Street giants BlackRock and Fidelity Investments entered the market in January as the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved their spot Bitcoin ETFs in the country.
Since their January 10 approval, the ETFs have seen billions of dollars in inflows, a trend which hints at further institutional interest into 2024.
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Bitcoin hit $50,000 yesterday for the first time since December 2021, as investors continue to pile in and Bitcoin’s upcoming halving event looms in April.
Tyler Pearson is a junior markets correspondent at DL News. He is based out of Alberta, Canada. Got a hot tip? Reach out to him at ty@dlnews.com.