U.S. Entrepreneur’s Fund Holds About 230 Billion Yen in Profit from Cryptocurrency Sale for 8 Years

Sell ​​most of your cryptocurrencies

Founders Fund, a US venture capital firm co-founded by prominent US investor Peter Thiel, has sold most of the crypto assets (virtual currencies) in its portfolio by the end of March 2022. The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 19th, summarizing the stories of multiple sources close to the company.

The Founders Fund first invested in Bitcoin (BTC) in early 2014. After about eight years, he sold the majority of all cryptocurrencies and now has no material exposure. The company made a profit of about ¥230 billion ($1.8 billion) from the sale of cryptocurrencies.

Relation: Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund owns tens of billions of yen worth of Bitcoin

According to CoinGecko’s current data, the price of Bitcoin will drop after hitting a new high of over 7 million yen in November 2021. After that, it turned upward from the 3.99 million yen level in January 2022, but dropped again when it rose to the 5.84 million yen level in late March.

Since 2014, Founders Fund has spent a lot of money investing in cryptocurrencies. Two-thirds of that investment went toward buying bitcoin, multiple sources said.

By the end of March, the company had sold most of its cryptocurrencies, one of the sources said. The Terra riot started in May last year, so it was sold out before that. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, and the US central bank began raising policy rates in March 2022.

Relation: Severe shock in the virtual currency market, summary of Alameda shock and FTX turmoil

The FT pointed out that Thiel was optimistic about Bitcoin’s future at a cryptocurrency conference held in April 2022. The price of bitcoin in April of the same year was hovering around 5 million yen, but Mr. Thiel said at the time that “the price of bitcoin could increase 100 times.”

Thiel is currently a partner of Founders Fund. The FT did not specify how long it would take to achieve the above price expectations or what its investment strategy would be after the crypto sale in March.

What is Founders Fund

According to information from the FT and others, the Founders Fund’s asset management amount is about 1.4 trillion yen ($11 billion). The company’s official website explains that it invests in people working on difficult problems such as science and engineering.

The company’s portfolio now includes the likes of SpaceX, Facebook, Airbnb and Stripe, as well as cryptocurrency company Paxos.

Relation: Compatible with payment services Stripe, Magic Eden, Argent, etc.

Last September, it was revealed that Founders Fund led a seed round for Bitcoin lending and staking protocol Block Green.

Relation: Peter Thiel’s Fund Leads ‘Bitcoin DeFi’ Block Green’s 500 Million Funding Round