Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros has been scrutinised for his public comments about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), expressing worries about its volatility and comparing it to Tulip mania in the mid-1600s. However, Soros’s views appear to have shifted, as evidenced by his fund’s increasing exposure to the crypto industry.

The billionaire investor’s asset management firm, Soros Fund Management, obtained the green light in the summer of 2021 to start trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to Finbold in June 2021. Soon after, Soros Fund Management joined a $200 million fundraising round for a Bitcoin financial technology business New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) in April 2021. Funders included MassMutual, FS Investments, and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), indicating the rise in institutional investment in cryptocurrencies.

Further signs of Soros’s increased exposure to cryptocurrencies was revealed in a 13F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange (SEC) December 31, 2022, which showed the fund had purchased $8,984,659 in convertible notes of crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings. Additionally, it was believed the fund had purchased call and put options on 50,000 shares of business intelligence software vendor MicroStrategy, as a proxy for Bitcoin trading, as noted by the founder and CEO of the crypto-focused investment fund North Rock Digital.

However, George Soros' actual crypto holdings still remain unknown. In a podcast appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience in February 2019, Alex Jones claimed he had been rejected of a $5 million offering of Bitcoin from Soros, who supposedly wanted Jones to pump the asset, the equivalent of around 760 BTC at the time. Today, that would amount to around $23 million.

Overall, it appears the public criticism George Soros made of cryptocurrency was, at least in part, misdirection, given the evidence that he and his firm are increasingly willing to invest in the crypto space. However, of the actual holdings, it remains unclear and unverified how much Bitcoin George Soros owns, if any.



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