Peter Thiel promotes Bitcoin – and has long since sold it

Good timing or bad game? US billionaire Peter Thiel has long been considered a prominent crypto advocate. Now it came out: Immediately before the market slump last year, his venture capital company Founders Fund closed almost all ongoing bets on Bitcoin and Co. – while Thiel continued to promote crypto. He remains optimistic about Bitcoin, Thiel said at a crypto conference in Miami in April 2022. According to the “Financial Times” (FT), however, he had largely withdrawn from the market shortly before – and in the process made a profit of 1.8 billion US dollars.

At the conference, Thiel apparently still fantasized about increases in value by a factor of 100 for Bitcoin – and that at a price level of just under $44,000 at the time. Today the price is bobbing at just under $20,000, and for a long time even lower at just under $16,000. Thiel also publicly defended cryptocurrencies against JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who as recently as 2017 called Bitcoin a “scam.” Now he has to “put some of his money into bitcoin” because the currency is doing so well.

The Paypal founder and prominent Trump supporter has invested in Bitcoin through the Founders Fund since 2014, at that time at an entry price of $750. Later, the company also pumped large sums into other crypto assets. According to FT, Bitcoin accounted for about two-thirds of the crypto portfolio until recently. Currently, however, the fund no longer has any significant exposure to crypto. The settlement has not yet been reported and Founders Fund declined to comment. The “Financial Times” cites insiders.

Silicon Valley rarely invests in coins

The FT compares Thiel’s behavior to a smart teenager who leaves a party on time – just before the parents get home. Thiel’s behavior tends to be well received on social networks as well. “Thiel talks about Bitcoin increasing by a factor of 100 – and then makes his profits at this level,” writes one user.

According to Forbes magazine, the 17 richest crypto investors have lost around $116 billion since March 2022. In addition to Thiel, numerous other Silicon Valley giants have made big crypto bets – with only a few investing so intensively in individual currencies. One of the few exceptions is Andreesen Horowitz’s A16z crypto arm. Many investors prefer to pump their money into so-called “enablers”, i.e. companies that provide crypto technology.