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The asset manager has, within 2 months, already realized a profit of $750 million on its investment in Bitcoin. Ruffer sold $650 million of BTC, but kept some of it for the long term.
For the British asset manager, Bitcoin is certainly a winning investment. In November, Ruffer Investment invested 2.7% of its assets in cryptocurrencies. This was equivalent to about $750 million.
Between November 2020 and January 2021, the value of the BTC skyrocketed. For the investor, this meant a record valuation of his financial investment. And no one in the company was expecting such a performance.
“We were surprised by the quality and speed of its results. We weren’t expecting an immediate firework display,” Duncan MacInnes, Ruffer’s investment manager, told Telegraph.
“I felt it was time to make a profit,” said Nigel Green, deVere Group CEO. The strategy is the same on the asset manager’s side, namely selling and taking profits.
MacInnes points out that Ruffer has recovered its initial stake, cashing in on a capital gain of $650 million. However, the company is not giving up Bitcoin. In fact, its investments remain substantial.
“We have about $700 million left and we are currently up $750 million in total,” says Ruffer’s executive. Ruffer is counting on further capital gains.
Yet Duncan MacInnes makes no secret of his reluctance towards Bitcoin. Ruffer had been following the price of the crypto asset for years. But in 2017, the director declared himself “very skeptical” about cryptocurrencies.
So it wasn’t until November 2020 that the company and its CEO finally took the plunge, albeit in a radically different economic landscape. And in this context of crisis, Bitcoin emerged as an “active alternative refuge” for institutional investors.
“We are seeing negative interest rates and bond yields everywhere. We have seen the liquidity war intensify because of the pandemic. At the same time, everything is going digital – our lives are much more digital than they were a year ago,” says MacInnes.