Dan Morehead, founder and managing partner of Pantera Capital — the first cryptocurrency fund in the United States — once told a skeptical investor that buying Bitcoin is like buying gold during the Iron Age.
His fund is now up over 130,000% from its initial investment, Morehead said in a Nov. 26 blog post.
“I was discussing bitcoin with an investor yesterday and he replied somewhat dismissively ‘It’s just like buying gold,’ No, it’s like buying gold in 1000 B.C,” said Morehead, quoting an investment memo he wrote in August 2013.
Morehead’s email attempted to convince investors to buy Bitcoin with him in July 2013. Source: Pantera Capital
Morehead launched Pantera Bitcoin Fund in July 2013 and has since made over a 1000 times lifetime return on its first Bitcoin purchase at $74, the founder said.
He went on to state that 1% of financial wealth hadn’t come across Bitcoin at the time, and when more did, Bitcoin would either go to zero or go up orders of magnitude.
But Morehead doesn’t think it’s even possible for Bitcoin to go to zero now.
Bitcoin has reached “escape velocity” with 300 million people around the world owning it, Morehead told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Nov. 27.
Change in value of the Pantera Bitcoin Fund since its first purchase in July 2013. Source: Pantera Capital
Morehead said about 5% of financial wealth is now exposed to Bitcoin — but that number is bound to rise with more regulatory clarity in the United States, leading to faster institutionalization of Bitcoin.
The likes of BlackRock and Fidelity with spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have kickstarted this “massive transformation,” said Morehead, who predicted that Bitcoin could eventually become a $15 trillion asset.
That would take Bitcoin’s price to around $740,000 — a 667% increase from current prices, which Morehead believes can get there by April 2028.
“I just can’t help thinking that we still have many more years of very compelling returns.”
It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for Morehead, who recalled Bitcoin crashing 87% in December 2013 — six months after the firm’s first purchase.
Around that time, Morehead said he “flew all around the world” to do 170 meetings — only to scrap a combined $1 million worth of investments.
Interestingly, Bitcoin was used to pay for Pantera’s hotel stays from online booking platform Expedia — one of the earlier corporate adopters of Bitcoin.
From the 59 nights on the road, it spent 88 Bitcoin, worth over $8.6 million at current prices.
“We coulda bought two hotels [with that money]!”
Bitcoin is currently trading at $95,135, up 2.7% over the last 24 hours.
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