Billionaire Peter Thiel Buys $20M Worth of Cryptos, Compares Bitcoin To 'Gold'
(Kitco News) - News that billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund bought “hundreds of millions of dollars” in cryptos, boosted bitcoin’s deflating price levels on Wednesday.
Thiel’s fund purchased somewhere between $15 million to $20 million worth of digital currencies since mid-2017, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Following the news, bitcoin prices surged back up to over $15,000, but then retreated and were last seen at $14,790, up 0.46% on the day, according to Kitco’s aggregated charts.
After reaching nearly $20,000 in mid-December, bitcoin’s record price, the cryptocurrency has been on a decline, registering a low of $10,700 on December 22.
Thiel is known for his impressive investment track record — he is the co-founder of PayPal and one of the first investors in Facebook.
Bitcoin ‘Is Like Gold’
Back in October, Thiel referred to bitcoin as the gold of the cyber age.
“It’s like gold and it’s just a store of value. You don’t actually need to use it to make payment,” he told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo at an event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
When discussing all types of cryptocurrencies, Thiel pointed out: “While I’m skeptical of most of them, I do think people are a little underestimating Bitcoin specifically.”
“It’s a very different kind of thing. People in Silicon Valley normally focus on companies, not algorithms or protocols, but maybe this is one exception that’s very underestimated,” he added.
Founders Fund manages around $3 billion of assets, which makes its investment into bitcoin very minor. It has investments in trendy tech startups, such as Lyft, Airbnb, Spotify, and Stripe.
But, bitcoin’s future, as its price levels, looks very fragile and volatile.
In one of the latest moves against bitcoin, Egypt's top imam spoke in support of a ban on bitcoin trading, stating it is “forbidden” by Islam.
Bitcoin trading has high risks of “fraudulence, lack of knowledge, and cheating,” said Sheikh Shawki Allam, the Grand Mutfi.
“Bitcoin is forbidden in Sharia as it causes harm to individuals, groups and institutions,” Egyptian daily Ahram quoted the fatwa as saying on January 1.
By Anna GolubovaFor Kitco News
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