Ever since the cryptocurrency crash and bear market began in January, negative news has outweighed positive news for the asset class. As new retail investors caught up in the bubble hype of last year panic sold, crypto needed institutional demand to enter and push prices up. The first possible news of fresh institutional money getting into crypto could be the recent report that legendary billionaire investor and money manager George Soros and Rockefeller family-founded venture capital firm Venrock are preparing to trade crypto.
Bloomberg reported on April 6 that Adam Fisher, the global macro manager of Soros's $26 billion family office Soros Fund Management, received internal approval last month to begin trading crypto soon. But the family office has not made a purchase or sale yet, according to the report's sources. Whenever Soros's family office officially makes its first trade, is it unclear whether the crypto community will be able to tell that he has moved the market. Crypto majors Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) traded higher after the news broke, rising more than 5% over the weekend before surrendering most of the gains Monday morning.
Soros, unlike some other Wall Street figures, has been relatively quiet on crypto. In a speech January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros claimed that crypto is not a currency but rather a speculative financial instrument: "Bitcoin is not a currency because a currency is supposed to be a stable store of value, and the currency that can fluctuate 25% in a day can't be used for instance to pay wages, because wages drop by 25% in a day. It's a speculation. Based on a misunderstanding." He also called crypto "a typical bubble," but stated the bubble would not crash sharply, since "as long as you have dictatorships on the rise you will have a different ending, because the rulers in those countries will turn to Bitcoin to build a nest egg abroad." But he praised blockchain technology. It is thus difficult to gauge Soros's true feelings on crypto from public statements.
David Pakman, a managing partner at Venrock, announced a partnership with the crypto investor group CoinFund. He stated that Venrock is interested in making investments in promising crypto projects. Pakman has a long-term investing outlook and is excited to team up with CoinFund to invest in, mentor, advise, and support startup teams working in the crypto space. It is good news for crypto investors that Venrock is feeling bullish.
While it remains unclear if Soros is bullish or bearish on crypto, some clues help fuel speculation. He is famous for shorting the British pound (GBP) in 1992 and making over $1 billion. Many in the online crypto community are afraid he will short crypto. But it does not make sense for Soros to go short now, as crypto is at multi-month lows after newcomers and the Mt. Gox trustee sold. It seems more likely that Soros will build a long position and attract greater institutional funds.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.