Thiel predicted 100x gains for Bitcoin a month around the same time his fund sold its crypto holdings.
Peter Thiel has been a long-time Bitcoin backer. But his fund closing almost all its crypto positions shortly before the market went downhill did not sit well with many.
According to Fortune’s latest report, Thiel’s VC firm – Founders Fund – cashed out all of its bets on cryptocurrencies and made $1.8 billion in profit while doing so.
The San Francisco-based fund bought Bitcoin over eight years ago when the flagship crypto was trading under $1,000. Over the next few years, it increased its holdings substantially.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami in April, Thiel continued to champion Bitcoin and called for its increased adoption. He even went on to say, “we are at the end of the fiat game regime,” while highlighting that Bitcoin was still undervalued but has the potential to replace Gold.
Backing Bitcoin, Theil also said that he expects the crypto’s price to increase 100-fold from its then trading value of $44,000.
However, the billionaire venture capitalist made no revelation about Founders Fund cashing out the previous month.
It is worth noting that the fund’s decision to offload its tokens was timed perfectly because Bitcoin would then see a massive plunge, even briefly falling below $16k later that year.
Currently, the fund does not have any significant exposure to crypto, as per FT’s sources.
Furthermore, the PayPal co-founder had said that he felt “underinvested” in Bitcoin just months before Founders Fund cashed out of its bets on digital assets.