$200 million is invested in cryptocurrency by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund ahead of a bull run

$200 million is invested in cryptocurrency by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund ahead of a bull run

According to two people with firsthand knowledge of the situation who spoke to Reuters, the fund spent $200 million between late summer and early autumn of last year to buy cryptocurrency tokens, with half of those tokens being in ether and the other half being bitcoin, the two biggest cryptocurrencies.

According to insiders, Founders Fund, the venture capital company that billionaire Peter Thiel established, is once again making investments in ether and bitcoin, indicating Silicon Valley's rekindled interest in the cryptocurrency markets.

According to two people with firsthand knowledge of the situation who spoke to Reuters, the fund spent $200 million between late summer and early autumn of last year to buy cryptocurrency tokens, with half of those tokens being in ether and the other half being bitcoin, the two biggest cryptocurrencies.

The big Silicon Valley venture capital firm's previously undisclosed action highlights the return of certain institutional investors to token investing, which was the most popular investment technique before to the 2022 cryptocurrency market meltdown.

The large wager represents a resurgence for the cryptocurrency markets, which had losses in 2022 with the demise of FTX, a major cryptocurrency exchange, and other major players' price declines that hurt the sector and prompted government intervention.

The price of Bitcoin fell to around $15,000 in 2022, the lowest level since 2020.

Over the last year, the values of Bitcoin and Ether have gradually increased. This week, Bitcoin reached $50,000 for the first time in over two years, although it is still below its peak of $69,000 set in November 2021.

Founders Fund, one of the first institutional investors in cryptocurrency, started purchasing Bitcoin aggressively in 2014. However, the fund withdrew from the market before to the 2022 collapse, recovering almost $1.8 billion.

According to the people, Founders Fund started buying Bitcoin last summer when its price was around $30,000. Over the course of a few months, it purchased further Bitcoin and Ether. The average cost of the items remained unknown to Reuters.

A fund representative refused to provide a statement.

As a store of value comparable to gold and a weapon against the monetary policies of central banks, Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has openly endorsed Bitcoin, a currency based on blockchain technology that operates outside of their jurisdiction. A defense exists against.

The interests of billionaires in libertarianism, limited government, and technological innovation are in line with the connection with cryptocurrency.

Founders Fund, which is well-known for its early investments in businesses like Meta and SpaceX, now manages more than $12 billion in assets. To concentrate on cryptocurrency ventures, Joey Krug was named a partner in April 2023.