Selling the Top: Peter Thiel’s VC Firm Made $1.8B From Crypto

Founders Fund reportedly no longer has a big investment in crypto after closing down most of its eight-year bet

article-image

Source: Shutterstock / Mark Reinstein, modified by Blockworks

share

Billionaire Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund made a timely crypto trade last year. 

The venture capital firm sold most of its cryptocurrency holdings before last year’s market crash, pulling in $1.8 billion from the trade, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. 

The fund, known to invest in groundbreaking technologies, built a position in crypto over time. It made its first bitcoin investment in 2014, and a majority of its crypto holdings were made up of the original cryptocurrency, partners of the fund told TechCrunch in March last year.

Founders Fund, which has $11 billion in assets under management, sold a big chunk of its crypto at the end of March 2022, a source told the FT. Bitcoin traded around $41,976 at the time, down around 40% from its all-time high.

That well-timed trade was made before the crash of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) in May, which marked the start of the crypto market carnage. 

A representative for Founders Fund didn’t return Blockworks’ request for comment by press time. 

Notably, Thiel made a pro-bitcoin speech just a month after his fund reportedly sold most of its crypto. He said the rise in bitcoin’s price was an implication that the “central banks are bankrupt” and that it signaled “the end of the fiat money regime.” He also spoke out against bitcoin’s critics, calling billionaire investor Warren Buffett “Enemy No.1” and a “sociopathic grandpa from Omaha.” 

When bitcoin was hovering near $60,000 in 2021, Thiel reportedly said that it was a sign the US political system was not stable. “I don’t know that you should put all your money into bitcoin at $60,000 a bitcoin right now,” he said. “But surely the fact that it is at $60,000 is an extremely hopeful sign.”

Separately, Thiel said at an event in Miami, in October 2021, that he felt he was “underinvested” in bitcoin. He also suggested he had some hesitation in investing in it because he thought “the secret was already known by everybody,” then added that “I think the answers are still to go long” on bitcoin. 

Crypto wasn’t the only investment Founders Fund offloaded. Between 2020 and 2022, the fund had eight other big exits including Airbnb and Palantir, a move that allowed it to return about $13 billion to investors, the FT reported.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (5).png

Research

Outside of stablecoins, the value of tokenized assets sits below $20B, dominated by the following asset classes: private credit, US Treasuries, commodities, institutional alternative funds, stocks, non-US government debt, and corporate bonds. In the coming months, we see the greatest opportunities in the tokenization of illiquid markets, particularly private equity. However, the successful integration of offchain assets into blockchain ecosystems relies heavily on clear and consistent regulatory frameworks, with purpose-built infrastructure to support it.

article-image

Tokenized private equity is the next “greatest” opportunity, BWR analyst Carlos Gonzalez Campo writes

article-image

Today Blockworks is launching Analytics 2.0, our greatly improved crypto data and analytics platform

article-image

Ethena and Securitize’s Converge will launch within the next three months

article-image

Sponsored

Ledn has positioned itself as a trusted CeFi leader in Bitcoin-backed lending

article-image

Yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of Solana’s genesis block

article-image

The Digital Asset Summit will feature TradFi and government reps speaking on broader adoption and who’s buying in