Bitcoin whale One River surfaced: Investing $1 billion in BTC and ETH next year

This article comes fromBloomberg, original author: Erik Schatzker

Odaily Translator |

Odaily Translator |

A hedge fund focused on betting on market volatility has surfaced and has quietly bought more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies, joining forces with Wall Street asset manager Brevan Howard Asset Management co-founder Alan Howard to become a Bitcoin investor. The largest investor in this.

One River Asset Management is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. The asset management giant CEO Eric Peters said in an interview with Bloomberg that he has established a new company as institutional investors are increasingly interested in cryptocurrencies. Planned investment in Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to Eric Peters, in addition to the $600 million in bitcoin it has already purchased, One River Digital Asset Management has committed to increasing the value of its bitcoin and ethereum holdings to approximately $1 billion by early 2021.

Soaring cryptocurrency prices and unprecedented loose monetary policy are attracting more and more funds into this nascent investment field. In the past, the growth of the cryptocurrency market was mainly driven by retail investors, but the situation seems to be different now. On Wednesday (December 16), Bitcoin broke through the $20,000 resistance level and hit a record high, almost tripling its price at the beginning of the year.

Eric Peters said:

"Institutional investors will invest in Bitcoin, a new asset type, according to the generational allocation (generational allocation) investment method, and the capital flow has just begun."

Alan Howard appears to have played more of a supporting role in investing in Bitcoin, buying shares in the company in addition to investing in funds from One River Digital Asset Management, a company he controls, Elwood Asset Management, which is investing in One River Digital Asset Management. Digital provides trading, market analysis and technical support services.

A spokesman for Alan Howard declined to comment on the investment in Bitcoin. It is worth mentioning that as early as October 2020, Brevan Howard had acquired a quarter of the shares of One River Asset Management. On the other hand, Eric Peters seems to be cautious about this surge in the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum. He revealed that he hopes to only trade in a low-key manner, so the original Bitcoin investment of up to $600 million was around November. Purchased (Bitcoin price had not yet reached $16,000 at the time).

Another investor in One River Digital Asset Management is Ruffer LLP, a British investment firm known for betting on market volatility. This Tuesday (December 15) Ruffer LLP disclosed that it also invested approximately US$742.6 million in Bitcoin in November, and one of its funds has placed 2.5% of its investment position in Bitcoin. Ruffer LLP believes that Bitcoin Bitcoin is like a "small but effective insurance policy against the continued devaluation of the world's major currencies."

Eric Peters founded One River Digital Asset Management in 2013 with the aim of capitalizing on market volatility and trend-following strategies, which have the advantage of profiting whether asset prices are rising or falling. For example, the outbreak of the new crown virus in March this year triggered a market sell-off, but the company's long-term volatility fund and dynamic convexity fund have risen sharply, with an increase of 33% and 40% respectively. Approximately $1.6 billion.

Eric Peters, 54, was attracted to digital assets in large part because he expected greater volatility in financial markets. In his words: Since interest rates in developed countries are at or below zero, as The emergence of government fiscal expenditure and monetization of central bank debt, stimulating growth will be the main method chosen by these governments, but the consequence of increased money supply will be currency depreciation and may even lead to inflation.

Eric Peters added:

"Coronavirus is the ultimate catalyst for market transformation and investing in Bitcoin is the most interesting macro trade of my career."

In fact, Eric Peters is not the first investor to predict a massive influx of money into the cryptocurrency market.

Mike Novogratz, the macro trader who founded Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., has been saying for years that "the cavalry is charging," and he stayed bullish on the market even as bitcoin fell to an all-time low of $3,157. will recover. But soon, some heavyweight investors appeared in the cryptocurrency market recently, including Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital and Galaxy, etc., and the asset size of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Fund, the largest player in the cryptocurrency market, has also expanded to 10 billion USD or more.

Eric Peters said his goal was to create a "blue-chip trust" for institutional clients looking for digital assets, while keeping institutional investors from making aggressive trades or making risky investments. It is reported that One River Digital Asset Management has hired Northern Trust Corp. as a fund manager and Coinbase as an initial partner for its transaction execution and asset custody. Take a sell-of-the-day trade.

On the other hand, as the dollar continues to depreciate and inflation accelerates, many people are worried, so it may also allow gold to continue to appreciate, but Eric Peters believes that the price growth of Bitcoin and Ethereum may far outpace the increase in gold. He concluded by saying: