George Soros’ fund holds bitcoin, CEO confirms



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Hungarian-American investor and philanthropist George Soros delivers a speech on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) January 24, 2019 in Davos, eastern Switzerland.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

Soros Fund Management, the asset management company founded by billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros, has revealed that it owns the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

The family office owns “a few coins … but not a lot,” said Dawn Fitzpatrick, CEO and CIO of Soros Fund Management, in an interview at a Bloomberg event this week.

Soros Fund Management, which is renowned for making large profits on traditional currency investments, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC when asked how many bitcoins she owned and when she bought them. .

“I’m not sure bitcoin is only considered here as a hedge against inflation,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think he crossed the chasm to generalize.”

Fitzpatrick went on to explain how cryptocurrencies now have a market value of over $ 2,000 billion, with over 200 million users.

The price of bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, jumped 10% from around $ 50,000 on Tuesday to over $ 55,000 on Wednesday. It was trading at $ 54,726 around 4 a.m. ET on Thursday.

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A week ago the price of bitcoin was around $ 43,000, while at the start of the year a bitcoin could be bought for around $ 29,000.

Bitcoin’s latest rally comes despite the continued threat of regulatory crackdown from governments around the world and concerns about its huge environmental footprint.

Fears over US regulation eased this week after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said they had no plans to impose restrictions on crypto trading. -coins.

“This recent rally contrasts the stock market with assets such as stocks, bonds and gold having a period of anxiety over high inflation and slowing economic growth,” said Freddie Evans, an agent. trading at UK-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, in a statement. Wednesday.

“This recent advance in bitcoin could be the repeat of history after China’s crypto business ban,” he added.

Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency to rise this year. Elsewhere, the price of ether more than tripled from around $ 1,000 a coin at the start of the year to over $ 3,000 a coin on Thursday.

Most professional investors think bitcoin is just a bubble, according to a survey of Bank of America fund managers released in April.

Some 74% of those who responded to the closely watched market gauge said they viewed the major cryptocurrency as a bubble. Only 16% answered no to the question, indicating the highly speculative ground in which they see bitcoin.

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