What kind of world do we live in now, where there are people out there presiding over hedge funds +25,000% thanks to his ‘early’ investments in Bitcoins? I’d like to say ‘no one saw this coming’, but it simply isn’t true. There have been a dedicated gaggle of crypt-nerds religiously buying BTC sub $100. Funny thing, I was even thinking about buying it after Mt Gox blew up, but opted against it because I suddenly lost the verve necessary to purchase something that, at the time, I had no idea what it was about.
Enter the Pantera Bitcoin Fund — the biggest dick swingers in the universe.
The fund — one of the first in the world to dedicate itself to virtual currencies — released its returns in a letter sent to investors on Tuesday. The figure for the life of the fund, which was set up in 2013, is eye popping: 25,004 percent.
A significant portion of the gains have come this year, thanks to the skyrocketing price of an individual Bitcoin, which hit $19,000 on Monday. (The fund’s 25,004 percent figure was actually counted back when Bitcoin was at $15,500, a week ago.)
For comparison, the top performing hedge fund in the world last year returned 148 percent, according to Preqin, a hedge fund tracker. Since 2013, the Pantera Bitcoin Fund’s compound annual returns have been around 250 percent.
The Pantera Bitcoin Fund did not have to do much to get those returns. It just bought Bitcoins and held them as the price went up. Its performance is a reminder of the unprecedented gains that Bitcoin has experienced, with some analysts arguing that Bitcoin’s moves have been even greater than the movements of Dutch tulip bulb prices back in the 1600s.
But Dan Morehead, who founded Pantera Capital and the fund after a career at Goldman Sachs, said it was not an easy decision to create a Bitcoin-focused hedge fund in 2013, when Bitcoin was primarily known as a currency for online drug markets.
“The first hard part was actually deciding to launch a cryptocurrency fund when everyone else thought that was crazy,” he said on Monday.
Many of the investors in the Pantera fund have not enjoyed its full 25,004 percent return. Some bought in at the beginning and then sold out when Bitcoin’s price was in a slow steady decline during 2014 and 2015. Others bought in during the current boom and have reaped only the returns that Bitcoin has experienced over the last year. Those still aren’t bad, at around 1,900 percent.
Those gains have given Pantera a lot of competition. More than 150 hedge funds focused on virtual currencies have been created this year, bringing the total number of such funds to 175, according to the research firm Autonomous Next.
I would imagine these guys are kicking ass, since they made all of their clients so much money, right? Wrong. You underestimate the fucked up nature that is inherent in the human race.
Pantera estimated that in dollar terms, the fund has made $2.1 billion for its investors. Investors have taken out Bitcoins worth around $1.7 billion to hold for themselves, to avoid paying Pantera’s 0.75 percent annual fees. That has left Pantera holding coins worth $400 million. Overall, investors originally put about $150 million into the fund.
A visionary lead his investors to a mountain of gold, only to be kicked down a crevasse by ingrates who wanted all of the gold for themselves.
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Further proof Homo Sapien is not long for this Universe. At least the Hedgies still got 400 mill, if any of it is theirs. If I was that Hedgie I would put a Russian hit on all those ungrateful, selfish scum, and watch videos of them getting their organs pickled.
Speaking of Bitcoin, I have finally decided, with the help of an Epiphany last night, that Bitcoin is 100% pure bitshit…that is, the entire idea. It is nothing more than the biggest scam YET Wall Street and other assorted World Class Criminals have conjured up. Bitcoin and Blockchain will NEVER be adopted as a Standard, and it will NEVER, EVER go “mainstream”. That will take at least 2 more years to become apparent (if it isn’t to some already). Therefore, there is still plenty of money to be made and lost on it. Tread carefully, fellow bitfuckers, and be looking for those shorts setting up**
**don’t listen to a thing I just said.
we won’t
Seems like the cost of being too honest with your investors. You reveal how simple your ‘buy and hold an index’ strategy is and they realize they can just do it themselves.
Hilarious these investors realized it with bitcoin but Pam and George down the street can’t figure out their $100k, 200 bps cost investment accounts are just long SPY calls.
Makes one wonder why it is such a brain surgery for some who cannot figure out they can do exactly the same thing with gold/silver – instead, they buy 100x leveraged ETF’s thinking it’s the same as having the same amount of ounces in their hand.
“Investors have taken out Bitcoins worth around $1.7 billion to hold for themselves”
That is some major Pantera spin.
1) Have you ever heard of investors withdrawing from a hedge fund to hold the exact same investment portfolio for themselves?
2) Pantera is funded in dollars, not BTCs, so investors who pulled out received dollars, not BTCs. It is impossible to know how those withdrawn dollars were reinvested.
3) 0.75% is a small fee compared to crypto transaction fees.
In all likelhood, Pantera’s invesotors bailed not to hold BTC’s for themselves, but because they see the bubble and have already made big enoguh gains that they don’t feel like waiting for the pop.
To clarify, I haven’t changed my opinion that BTC still has some ways to rise, but I’m not falling for their fake story. They just don’t want to panic the market by stating the obvious: smart-money investors are bailing on cryptos.
+1 Article is fake news