- Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund sold off all of its Bitcoin holdings in March 2022, right before the crypto industry experienced a big crash.
- Founders Fund started buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies back in 2014.
- The fund made about $1.8 billion from selling its crypto assets.
- Thiel hyped Bitcoin at a crypto conference in Miami in April 2022, a month after selling all of it. He said that the price of BTC might increase 100-fold.
Billionaire startup founder Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, once big on Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, has liquidated all of its digital asset holdings.
According to a report by Financial Times, Thiel’s fund sold off all of its Bitcoin in March 2022, days before the cryptocurrency industry suffered a crash fueled by the collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem and the bankruptcy of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
When Founders Fund was selling its digital asset holdings, Bitcoin was trading in the $37,000-$46,000 range. The fund made around $1.8 billion from selling its crypto assets.
Thiel’s fund started investing in Bitcoin in 2014 when the price of BTC was under $1,000. According to Financial Times, the fund allocated two-thirds to buying Bitcoin. Over time, the fund continued to buy more Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Peter Thiel Hyped Bitcoin a Month After Selling It
The news of Thiel’s fund selling its Bitcoin in March 2022 shines a different light on Thiel’s comments made a month after the portfolio liquidation.
In April 2022, a month after the reported sale of Bitcoin and other digital assets, Thiel, who is known for co-founding PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR), appeared at a crypto conference in Miami where he praised Bitcoin.
Thiel said that “we’re at the end of the fiat money regime” and that the price of BTC could increase 100-fold from its then value of around $44,000. Thiel made no comment at the time about his fund’s decision to sell its Bitcoin.
Since Founders Fund sold off its Bitcoin, the crypto market has gone down significantly. At one point after the FTX collapse, the price of BTC went as low as $15,500. It’s currently trading at around $21,100, according to data from CoinGecko.
On the Flipside
- There’s still a possibility that Thiel has rebought BTC as it dipped to $15,500. It’s also possible that he’s waiting for the price to dump even more.
Why You Should Care
Peter Thiel has been a proponent of Bitcoin and crypto in general for a long time. It’s unclear why he has decided to liquidate its holdings. It’s possible that it might have been a simple profit-taking event. Investors should wait for Thiel’s own explanation of why he decided to no longer be investing in cryptocurrencies.
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