A London based asset management firm, Ruffer LLP has profited by more than $1 billion from a $600 million Bitcoin investment the company made in November 2020. The firm invested 2.5% of its $27 billion portfolios into bitcoin, which was bought via One River Digital and Coinbase, in November, and took profits earlier this year.
In an interview with The Times, investment director of the firm, Hamish Baillie, revealed that Ruffer closed out its Bitcoin position for more than $1.1 billion in profit in April. He stated, “When the price doubled, we took some profits for our clients in December and early January. We actively managed the position and by the time we sold the last tranche in April the total profit was slightly more than $1.1 billion.”
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Hamish Baillie claims that Ruffer LLP became one of the first fund managers to buy BTC in what was a rare short-term investment for the company. At the time of the investment, Bitcoin’s price had cleared $15,000 and was pushing up to test the then all-time highs near $20,000 that had been set in late 2017.
Hamish Baillie attributed Bitcoin’s late 2020 parabolic price rally to the pandemic lockdown and stimulus payouts in the United States. He said the company sold its holdings partly because younger investors would not be spending as much time trading crypto now that lockdowns are ending worldwide.
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He stated that the firm has moved the profits it made on the BTC trade into other “protective” assets such as inflation-linked government bonds. However, Hamish Baillie is confident that major financial institutions, including Ruffer LLP and Goldman Sachs, will continue to buy Bitcoin, stating that another purchase is “certainly not off the menu.”
“If you have a multi-asset strategy then things that behave in different ways are really helpful. There’s no point being multi-asset if all your different assets move with the same dynamics,” Baillie said.
Ruffer LLP is not the only large financial institution that has been dabbling in crypto, with data from Bitcointreasuries.org showing that 36 publicly traded companies currently hold BTC on their balance sheet. Only six or 16% of publicly traded firms invested in Bitcoin are currently down on their position. These companies are Nexon, Meitu and Seetee. The top three holders include MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square who are collectively sitting on $5.2 billion worth of Bitcoin between them.
Bitcoin is currently trading $36,000, down 0.08% in the last week. The cryptocurrency market capitalization is also down 0.08% in the last 24 hours to trade $1.65 trillion.
