Billionaire Pierre Thiela renowned venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal credits And Palantir TechnologiesI entered Bitcoin BTC/USD investments long before his dazzling dazzling runs captured the world’s attention.
However, this long-held belief seemed to fade, as shown in one of his interviews last year.
What happened: During an interview in June 2023, Thiel expressed pessimism about the potential for Bitcoin’s price rise.
“I’m not sure the price is going to increase that dramatically from now on. We got the ETF edition and I don’t know who else is buying it,” the venture capitalist said .
Thiel added that the overarching cryptocurrency has become increasingly linked to traditional finance due to the launch of spot exchange-traded funds, a departure from its original cypherpunk and crypto-anarchist narrative.
See also: Michael Saylor’s Proposal to Increase MicroStratagy Share Count Approved by Shareholders – More Bitcoin Buys on the Cards?
When Thiel made these remarks, Bitcoin was trading at $60,320.14 per unit. So, if you put aside his skepticism and invested $1,000 in the asset, you would have received 0.0165 BTC.
Fast forward to January, and the supreme cryptocurrency has made significant progress, trading hands at $104,988.38 as of this writing.
So, if you had resisted the sale, the initial investment would have reached $1,740.52, which would have generated a 74% return in just about seven months.
Why it matters: the venture capital company Thiel, Founders Fund, has had a significant history with Bitcoin, first purchasing the supreme digital asset in 2014.
The fund made a $1.8 billion profit on its Bitcoin investments by selling them just before the market crashed in 2022.
He returned to the market between late summer and early fall 2023, purchasing $100 million worth of Bitcoin.
Interestingly, in the same interview where Thiel expressed doubts about Bitcoin, he regretted not purchasing more of the digital currency.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $104,988.38, up 2.73% over the past 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Since the start of the year, the leading cryptocurrency has gained 12.41%.
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