According to Reuters, billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund is investing again in Bitcoin and Ethereum, suggesting Silicon Valley’s renewed interest in cryptocurrency markets.
According to Reuters, billionaire Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund is investing again in Bitcoin and Ethereum, suggesting Silicon Valley’s renewed interest in cryptocurrency markets.
The fund invested $200 million between late summer and early fall last year to acquire crypto assets, half of which were in Bitcoin and the other half in Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies. Reuters reported, citing sources.
As one of the first institutional investors in cryptocurrency, Founders Fund began buying Bitcoin aggressively in 2014, but dumped it before the cryptocurrency market imploded in 2022, making more than $1.8 billion in profits. Bitcoin price fell to approximately $15,000 in 2022, the lowest since 2020.
Last summer, Founders Fund began buying Bitcoin when it was less than $30,000, and continued buying Bitcoin and Ethereum for several months.
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has publicly endorsed Bitcoin, describing it as a gold-like store of value and a hedge against central bank monetary policy.
Bitcoin and Ethereum prices have risen steadily over the past year, with Bitcoin hitting $50,000 for the first time in more than two years this week, but has yet to reach its November 2021 high of $69,000.
Bitcoin investors are arguably having a great year so far, with the BTC market hitting new multi-year highs of $50,200 and a positive year-to-date return of 18.5%. Only 141 days in 2021 have had a daily closing price above $50,200, representing 2.84% of Bitcoin’s trading history.
Bitcoin is also up 130% in the past 12 months and more than 207% since the November 2022 lows, and is now trading 28.6% below its all-time high (ATH).
At the time of writing, Bitcoin had retreated from its recent highs of over $50,000, rising just 1.54% in the last 24 hours to $49,064. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is up 5.93% in the previous 24 hours to $2,649.
