Shalini Nagarajan

Billionaire Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund made a timely crypto trade last year.&nbsp;



The venture capital firm sold most of its cryptocurrency holdings before last year’s market crash, pulling in $1.8 billion from the trade, the Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0a1d5597-7145-4035-987b-ff033bba3d75" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> on Thursday. 



The fund, known to invest in groundbreaking technologies, built a position in crypto over time. It made its first bitcoin investment in 2014, and a majority of its crypto holdings were made up of the original cryptocurrency, partners of the fund told <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/04/a-peek-inside-founders-fund-as-it-closes-on-5-billion-across-two-new-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TechCrunch</a> in March last year.



Founders Fund, which has $11 billion in assets under management, sold a big chunk of its crypto at the end of March 2022, a source told the FT. <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/assets/btc">Bitcoin</a> traded around $41,976 at the time, down around 40% from its all-time high.



That well-timed trade was made before the crash of algorithmic stablecoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/terrausd">TerraUSD</a> (UST) in May, which marked the start of the crypto market carnage.&nbsp;



A representative for Founders Fund didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time.&nbsp;



Notably, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/peter-thiel">Thiel</a> made a pro-bitcoin <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko6K82pXcPA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">speech</a> just a month after his fund reportedly sold most of its crypto. He said the rise in bitcoin’s price was an implication that the “central banks are bankrupt” and that it signaled “the end of the fiat money regime.” He also spoke out against bitcoin’s critics, calling billionaire investor Warren Buffett “Enemy No.1” and a “sociopathic grandpa from Omaha.” 



When bitcoin was hovering near $60,000 in 2021, Thiel <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/8c2365?irclickid=x39ws9U0hxyNRNpRHdUyETowUkAw7l1EZ2nJy40&amp;irgwc=1&amp;utm_source=affiliate&amp;utm_medium=cpa&amp;utm_campaign=10078-Skimbit+Ltd.&amp;utm_term=businessinsider.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a> said that it was a sign the US political system was not stable. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know that you should put all your money into bitcoin at $60,000 a bitcoin right now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But surely the fact that it is at $60,000 is an extremely hopeful sign.&#8221;



Separately, Thiel <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-21/thiel-says-he-was-underinvested-in-bitcoin-price-may-rise" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> at an event in Miami, in October 2021, that he felt he was “underinvested” in bitcoin. He also suggested he had some hesitation in investing in it because he thought “the secret was already known by everybody,” then added that “I think the answers are still to go long” on bitcoin. 



Crypto wasn’t the only investment Founders Fund offloaded. Between 2020 and 2022, the fund had eight other big exits including Airbnb and Palantir, a move that allowed it to return about $13 billion to investors, the FT reported.



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Selling the Top: Peter Thiel’s VC Firm Made $1.8B From Crypto

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62697aca73bac" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Founded in 2018, Dragonfly has invested more than $700 million overall</li>
 <li>Most US venture capital firms don’t focus enough on crypto projects in Asia, according to a Dragonfly Capital executive</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Dragonfly Capital has launched its third crypto venture fund with $650 million in commitments, earmarking the capital infusion to back later-stage startups as the crypto industry matures.



Those backing the new fund include Tiger Global, KKR, Sequoia China, Invesco, Top Tier Capital Partners and Ivy League endowments. The fund was originally aiming for $500 million in commitments, <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1900344/000190034422000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a regulatory filing</a> shows.



Dragonfly intends to “double down” on its backing of the next breakthroughs in crypto infrastructure, DeFi and smart contract scaling, as well as consumer products, such as NFTs, crypto games and DAOs.



“Our strategy is still early-stage investing, but we&#8217;ll now be able to lead more Series A and Series B rounds as well,” Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi told Blockworks. “Our goal is to support entrepreneurs in every round from seed to exit.”



The new fund has not yet made any investments.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/dragonfly-launches-second-vc-fund-with-225-million/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The firm last year launched</a> its second venture capital fund, focused on international decentralized technologies, with $225 million.



Founded in 2018, Dragonfly has invested more than $700 million, including stakes in Avalanche, NEAR Protocol, Compound, MakerDAO, 1inch, Matter Labs, Anchorage and Dune Analytics.



Despite venture dollars flowing into crypto in recent years, Qureshi said the biggest gap in the market right now is investing in Asia.



“Dragonfly has been global from day one, so we have deep roots in Asia,” he said, adding that the firm was an early backer of Amber Group, Babel Finance, Matrixport and Bybit. “We believe that it&#8217;s a hugely important part of the market that&#8217;s neglected by most of the US [venture capital firms].”



Amber Group reached a $3 billion valuation with <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-trading-platform-amber-group-eclipses-3b-valuation-with-latest-raise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its fundraise in February</a>, while Matrixport <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/matrixport-raises-100m-and-hits-unicorn-status-with-1b-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hit a $1 billion valuation</a> last year.



Bybit, which recently moved its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai, unveiled crypto options trading this week. CEO Ben Zhou said the firm is confident that the new offering will help normalize crypto options trading, “just like what Robinhood did for stock options.”



Qureshi declined to comment about potential future fund plans.



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Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.