Bitcoin has now surpassed $18,000 and is only a mere 10% away from breaking its all-time high!
In the advent of this exuberant price action, a wave of news has appeared with prominent financial personas suddenly revealing their Bitcoin holdings/positions or at least how much percent Bitcoin makes of their total portfolio.
It now looks like more old-school players have skin in the game than we initially thought, let's see the list:
- Michael Saylor
- Paul Tudor Jones
- Ricardo Salinas Pliego
- Daniel Schulman
- Jack Dorsey
- Cynthia Lummis
- Stan Druckenmiller
- Jaan Tallinn
- Barry Silbert
- Elon Musk
1. Michael Saylor
Key Position:
Founder and CEO of Microstrategy
Bitcoin Position:
MicroStrategy owns 38,250 BTC and Saylor personally owns 17,732 BTC
Proof:
Saylor has been very open and upfront about MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings as a treasury reserve asset. On September 15, 2020, he announced the company’s total holdings of 38,250 BTC at an aggregate purchase price of $425 million:
Saylor also divulged on Twitter that he personally owns 17,732 BTC which he bought at $9,882 each on average:
Who is Michael Saylor?
𝅘𝅥𝅮 Who is Saylor… Saylor is a Bitcoin bull, bull, bull… 𝅘𝅥𝅮
Michael Saylor is the founder and CEO of Microstrategy, a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ which provides business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services.
He’s also an American entrepreneur, author of the “The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything” a book released in 2012, and is now one of Bitcoin’s largest proponents.
Saylor dove deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole just recently in 2020 and has now dedicated his life’s energy to Bitcoin. He has done countless interviews on Bitcoin and understands it in such a profound way.
If you haven’t listened to Saylor speak about Bitcoin yet, I highly recommend you do. You can find some of his material at hope.com, a dedicated page to Bitcoin on Microstrategy’s website.
2. Paul Tudor Jones
Key Positions:
Billionaire hedge fund manager at Tudor Investment Corporation
Bitcoin Position:
1% - 2% of his assets are in Bitcoin
Proof:
As reported by Bloomberg in May 2020, Jones revealed that he’s invested 1%-2% of his assets in Bitcoin and said the following statement in a market outlook note:
“The best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse. If I am forced to forecast, my bet is it will be Bitcoin.”
Moreover, according to Forbes, Paul Tudor Jones’ net worth is $5.8 billion as of 2020. That said if he allocated 1%-2% of his net worth to Bitcoin that means he likely has millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of BTC, depending on what price he bought in at.
Who is Paul Tudor Jones?
Paul Tudor Jones is an American billionaire hedge fund manager. He founded his own hedge fund, Tudor Investment Corporation as well as the Robin Hood Foundation, which focuses on poverty reduction.
Jones is famously known for predicting the 1987 stock market crash, his billionaire hedge fund, and his work in philanthropy.
3. Ricardo Salinas Pliego
Key Positions:
The third richest man in Mexico, Founder and Chairman of Grupo Salinas
Bitcoin Position:
10% of his liquid assets are in Bitcoin
Proof:
On November 17, 2020, Pliego announced in a tweet that many people have asked him about bitcoin and he said: “YES. I have 10% of my liquid portfolio invested.”:
In the tweet above, he also made a book recommendation, “El Patron Bitcoin” or “The Bitcoin Pattern” – a book which he said is “the best and most important to understand #Bitcoin.”
Who is Ricardo Salinas Pliego?
Ricardo Salinas Pliego is a Mexican businessman and the founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, a collection of companies with stakes in telecommunications, media, financial services, and retail stores.
Pliego is named the 3rd richest man in Mexico and the 110th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $13.2 billion as of February 2020.
In addition to his entrepreneurial and business endeavors, Pliego is also a philanthropist. He founded multiple nonprofit foundations that are committed to a broad range of social problems.
4. Daniel Schulman
Key Positions:
PayPal CEO
Bitcoin Position:
Unknown
Proof:
In an interview with Fortune on November 20, 2019, the publication asked: “Do you personally own any cryptocurrencies?”
To this, the CEO promptly replied: “Yes. Bitcoin.”
The interviewer then asked if he only owned Bitcoin, to which Schulman replied: “Only. Yes.”
Just 1 year after this interview, Schulman and PayPal are openly embracing Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, enabling users to buy, sell, and even spend Bitcoin via PayPal.
Who is Daniel Schulman?
Daniel Schulman is an American business executive and President and CEO of PayPal. He’s also the Chairman of Symantec and is a board member for Verizon, Rutgers University, and Autism Speaks.
Prior to PayPal, Shulman served as the group president of enterprise growth at American Express where he expanded their global strategy through partnerships and the like.
5. Jack Dorsey
Key Positions:
CEO of Twitter, Founder and CEO of Square
Bitcoin Position:
Personal holdings: unknown, Square holdings: 4,709 BTC
Proof:
Jack Dorsey is one of the biggest proponents of Bitcoin and this is widely known as his Twitter profile only has one word, #Bitcoin:
Also, Dorsey only owns Bitcoin, which he has stated on multiple occasions:
As for his Bitcoin holdings, he has not divulged this information. He has only stated that he simply owns enough:
As for his financial payments company Square, the firm invested $50 million representing 1% of the firm’s total assets into Bitcoin, giving Square a total of 4,709 BTC. Square released a press release detailing how and why they made this decision.
Who is Jack Dorsey?
Jack Dorsey is an American technology entrepreneur and philanthropist who also serves as the CEO of Twitter and the founder and CEO of Square.
He is passionate about meditation, he’s a human rights activist, and he is big on philanthropy. In April 2020, Dorsey moved $1 billion, about a third of his total wealth, to Start Small, LLC, and to relief programs related to the coronavirus.
Since the pandemic started, he has donated $24 million to over 40 different grantees for relief efforts and $10 million to Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research.
6. Cynthia Lummis
Key Positions:
U.S. Senator-elect from Wyoming
Bitcoin Position:
Unknown
Proof:
Fortune reported on November 4, 2020, that Cynthia Lummis bought her first Bitcoin in 2013 on a tip from her son-in-law, and ever since she has been a Bitcoin hodler.
Elaborating on her first Bitcoin purchase, Lummis said:
“It was during my time in Congress that I first learned about bitcoin. I was struck by how innovative bitcoin is with its decentralized public ledger and a fixed supply.”
And when she was elected to represent the state of Wyoming in the U.S. Senate, she told fox news that she believes Bitcoin is a great store of value and that she plans to explain Bitcoin to her colleagues.
Who is Cynthia Lummis?
Cynthia Lummis is an American politician, a member of the Republican party, and an attorney who was appointed in 2020 as the U.S. Senator for Wyoming.
Lummis has a long history in American politics. She served as the U.S. Representative for Wyoming's at-large congressional district from 2009 to 2017, and prior to that, she served as a State Representative, a State Senator, and State Treasurer.
7. Stanley Druckenmiller
Key Positions:
Billionaire Investor and Hedge Fund Manager
Bitcoin Position:
Unknown
Proof:
In an interview with CNBC aired on November 9, 2020, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller revealed that he owns Bitcoin:
“I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but I have warmed up to the fact that Bitcoin could be an asset class. I own many more times gold than I own Bitcoin, but frankly, if the gold bet works, the Bitcoin bet will probably work better because it’s thinner and more illiquid and has a lot more beta to it.”
Expressing his views further, Druckenmiller explained that he believes Bitcoin has garnered a lot of attraction as a store of value and that “with each passing day, it picks up more of its stabilization as a brand.”
Who is Stanley Druckenmiller?
Stanley Druckenmiller is a billionaire American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1981 he founded Duquesne Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund that managed capital for some of America’s wealthiest people such as George Soros.
Druckenmiller’s investment philosophy is to be a top-down investor who holds a group of stocks long, a group of stocks short, and uses leverage to trade futures and currency.
8. Jaan Tallinn
Key Positions:
Programmer, Investor, and Co-founder of Skype, FastTrack/Kazaa, and Buemoon
Bitcoin Position:
Unknown, but majority of wealth is in Bitcoin
Proof:
(Source)
On November 13, 2020, Fortune published an article stating that Jaan Tallin holds the majority of his wealth in cryptocurrency. This information was divulged when he donated 350 ETH and 50 BTC to Faculty AI, a company that helps create machine-learning systems for companies and governments.
The reason for donating in cryptocurrency, Tallinn says:
“Is that he keeps most of his personal wealth in that form, and converting it into cash would have resulted in an unnecessary capital gains tax bill, reducing the amount he could give.”
Who is Jaan Tallinn?
Jaan Tallinn is an Estonian computer engineer who’s known for his participation in the development of Skype, the video calling application and FastTrack/Kazaa, a file-sharing application.
In addition to his passion for cryptocurrency, Tallinn strongly promotes the study of existential risk and has given numerous talks on this topic.
He is deeply worried about artificial intelligence and the unknowns coming from technological developments. As well, he believes that humanity is not spending enough resources on long-term planning and mitigating threats that could wipe us out as a species.
9. Barry Silbert
Key Positions:
Founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG), Grayscale Investments, and SecondMarket
Bitcoin Position:
Personal holdings: Unknown, Grayscale holdings: 509,581 BTC
Proof:
Barry Silbert’s investment firm Digital Currency Group is the world's leading firm for investing in Bitcoin-related companies, and his trading firm Grayscale holds 509,581 BTC and counting.
Silbert started investing in Bitcoin startups in 2013 as a venture capitalist and provided funding for companies like BitPay, Coinbase and Ripple. That said, he is a very early Bitcoin investor and continues to be incredibly active in the Bitcoin space through his Bitcoin-related companies.
Who is Barry Silbert?
Barry Silbert is an OG Bitcoiner who established himself in 2012 as one of the earliest and most active investors in the industry.
Apart from all of his Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related businesses and investments, Silbert has received numerous awards and accolades including being named Entrepreneur of the Year by both Ernst & Young and Crain's, and being selected to Fortune’s prestigious "40 under 40" list.
Prior to discovering Bitcoin, Silbert worked as an investment banker in New York.
10. Elon Musk
Key Positions:
Founder, CEO, CTO and Chief Sesigner of SpaceX; CEO and Product Architect of Tesla; Founder of The Boring Company; Co-Founder of Neuralink; and Co-Founder and Initial Co-Chairman of OpenAI
Bitcoin Position:
He claims its only 0.25 BTC, but we know it’s probably much more ;)
Proof:
Elon Musk has tweeted about Bitcoin on multiple equations and on May 15, 2020, he proclaimed he still only holds 0.25 BTC.
While Musk claims to hold only 0.25 BTC, I don’t believe it for a second. He surely owns more than that, he just doesn't state it. He's too smart to not have Bitcoin.
Who is Elon Musk?
Elon Musk is a business magnet and industrial designer and engineer. He has founded and co-founded a multitude of companies with his earliest ones being Zip2, X.com, and PayPal.
He’s now actively involved with many more of his companies including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Nearalink, Starlink, and OpenAI. His networth as of November 2020 is an estimated $103.9 billion.
