10,000%: Pantera Reports Massive 5-Year Crypto Investment Return

Cryptocurrency investment firm Pantera Capital reported a more than 10,000 percent lifetime return on Friday, coming five years after its formation.

In an email, co-chief investment officers Dan Morehead (who is also CEO) and Joey Krug shared the figure as they celebrated the fund's fifth anniversary. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they're still bullish about bitcoin, particularly in the years since Pantera's launch, noting that "the Fund's lifetime return is 10,136.15% net of fees and expenses."

To that end, Morehead and Krug included two emails that the fund sent out in 2013 to illustrate that point.

"We wanted to share the original logic – as it is equally compelling today," Morehead and Krug wrote. At the time, an email sent by Morehead predicted that bitcoin – which was trading at $104 at the time – would see $5,000 because "bitcoin dominates cash, electronic fiat money, gold, bearer bonds, large stone discs, etc. It can do all of the things that each of those can. It's the first global currency since gold. It's the first borderless payment system ever."

Three months later, bitcoin was trading at $253 when Morehead again touted the principles behind the cryptocurrency.

Morehead wrote at the time:

"In my opinion, it's like deciding whether to buy Microsoft back in the day at $0.20 a share. It was hard to do when the stock was just at $0.10. In the fullness of time…clearly a great trade. I believe bitcoin right now is just like that. The world's first global currency since gold and the world's only borderless payments system (frictionless to boot) at a market cap of $3bn? Now that Silk Road is gone, a new wave of sophisticated investors are entering."

Pantera, which has since launched its own hedge fund to invest in blockchain startups, plans to travel "over the next months to discuss Venture Fund III and the blockchain disruption."

"We have organized group lunches in many cities, should you want to meet other investors who share your interest in blockchain," the officers wrote.

Some of the firm's recent investments include sharing economy startup Origin and "stablecoin" startup Basis.

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