Bill Miller, former chairman of Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund, and current chairman of Miller Value Partners LLC, has revealed that bitcoin holdings comprise approximately 30% of the assets in Miller Value Partner’s MVP 1 hedge fund.
Also Read: Wall Street Hedge Funds Rush to Cryptocurrencies, 90 Bitcoin-Like This Year Alone
The Share of Bill Miller’s Hedge Funds’ Assets Invested in Bitcoin Has Gone From 5% to 30% in Just 12 Months
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bill Miller has revealed that roughly 30% of the assets in Miller Value Partners LLC’s $154 million USD MVP 1 hedge fund are invested in bitcoin. The share of the fund’s total that is represented by bitcoin holdings has significantly increased following bitcoin’s price gains of approximately 600% this year – as bitcoin represented just 5% of MVP 1’s assets in 2016. Mr. Miller states that the MVP 1 hedge fund has gained in value by approximately 72.5% so far during 2017.
In a letter sent to investors last week, Mr. Miller estimated that the average price paid for the fund’s bitcoins was approximately $350 USD per coin. Although Mr. Miller has stated that the fund will not purchase any additional bitcoin at current prices, he is reported to have said that he would be willing to “put 1% of [his] liquid net worth” into bitcoin if he were not privately exposed to the bitcoin markets.
Mr. Miller First Invested in Bitcoin During 2014
Mr. Miller’s letter presents a balanced and impartial outlook for bitcoin’s future, describing bitcoin as “a technological experiment that may or may not prove to have any long lasting value.” Mr. Miller states “bitcoin has a market capitalization greater than 90% of the companies in the S&P 500, but it still might fail. I don’t know and neither does anyone else, no matter how certain they are of their opinion… I believe there is still a nontrivial chance bitcoin goes to zero, but each day it does not, that chance declines as more venture capital flows into the bitcoin ecosystem and more people become familiar with bitcoin and buy it.”
In Mr. Miller’s letter he notes that a “Murderers’ Row” of prominent investors have been predicting an imminent popping of the bitcoin ‘bubble’., including Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, and Howard Marks. In an interview 2014 with CNBC, Mr. Miller rejected Warren Buffett’s then-recent criticisms of bitcoin, stating “if [bitcoin] becomes only 10 percent as popular gold, then it’s an 800 billion market value.”
In June of this year, Mr. Miller described bitcoin as a “true disruptor and true innovation in money.”
Do you think the growing prevalence of bitcoin exposed hedge funds is positive for the bitcoin ecosystem? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Miller Value Partners LLC, Wikipedia
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