Soros Fund Management, the family office of billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, has recently been confirmed as owning bitcoin by its CEO/CIO Dawn Fitzpatrick, reports The Block.
There had been reports by anonymous sources earlier this year that Soros Fund was trading in bitcoin, and now Fitzpatrick has confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that the company does indeed own some bitcoin. The company is familiar with investing within the crypto space, having previously invested in NYDIG, a financial services and technology firm that specializes in bitcoin, and Lukka, a blockchain data technology company, but this is the first foray into actual cryptocurrency investment.
“From our perspective again, we own some coins, not a lot, and the coins themselves are less interesting than the use cases of DeFi and things like that,” Fitzpatrick said in the interview.
This is a trend that is becoming more common among hedge fund giants and family offices as increasingly more companies are investing heavier into crypto assets. Fellow billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist Dan Loeb’s Third Point fund also supposedly holds cryptocurrency as well. That, coupled with Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management’s investment into crypto startups Zero Hash and Messari, indicates growing and continued interest within crypto by some of the big players.
“I’m not sure bitcoin is only viewed as an inflation hedge. Here I think it’s crossed the chasm to mainstream. Cryptocurrencies now have a market cap of over $2 trillion. There’s 200 million users around the world, so I think this has gone mainstream,” Fitzpatrick explained.
The price of bitcoin has soared recently, climbing from $50,000 last Tuesday to over $57,000 at time of press; as of two weeks ago, the cryptocurrency was worth approximately $43,000, reports CNBC. The rise comes at a time when the SEC Chair Gary Gensler and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have both said that they do not plan to set any restrictions on cryptocurrency trading.
“This recent rally contrasts the stock market with assets like stocks, bonds and gold having a period of angst over high inflation and slowing economic growth,” said Freddie Evans, sales trader at the U.K.-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, last Wednesday in a statement.
Major institutions are also wading into the mix, with several reporting crypto-adjacent investment options, as well as banking giant Bank of America acknowledging last week the relevance of crypto and the opportunities the space presents.
See also: Major Bank Lends Credence to Crypto
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