Peter Thiel’s firm holds hundreds of millions in bitcoin: report

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel has amassed hundreds of millions in bitcoin, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Founders Fund, Thiel’s venture capital firm, is betting on cryptocurrency across a number of recent funds, including one that started in 2017 with its first investments in bitcoin.

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According to the newspaper’s sources, Founders purchased between 15 and 20 million dollars’ worth of bitcoin, which is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s unclear if the firm has sold any of these holdings.

Founders’s move to actually purchase bitcoins is a split from other venture capital firms which have tended instead to invest in companies and technology that use bitcoin, as opposed to investing in the currency directly.

The move is paying off for Thiel at the moment. The bitcoin investment is estimated to be the most valuable part of a new $1.3 billion fund, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Since news broke of Thiel’s holdings in the currency, bitcoin has shot up from roughly $14,146 to $14,569, based on its value on the Coinbase exchange.

Over the past year, the value of bitcoin has shot up rapidly. It was trading at $1,000 early in 2017 before hitting almost $20,000 at the end of the year. Other cryptocurrencies like ethereum and Ripple have also enjoyed enormous gains in 2017.

Thiel, an influential figure in Silicon Valley, was also a prominent adviser of President Trump during the campaign.