Pantera Capital Founder and Bloomberg Conversation: Crypto Market Expected to Continue Due to Federal Law

Former Goldman Sachs contract trader Dan Morehead was one of the few to create the first cryptocurrency when Bitcoin was cheaper than a bag of groceries.

"I'm absolutely satisfied," Dan Morehead, 56, said in an interview. "It was the first truly international trade that crossed borders."

As a result, Pantera's Bitcoin Fund, a traditional macro investment fund, has since clawed back over 65,000% from Pantera Capital Management.We now have $5.6 billion in crypto assets under management by the end of 2021.This is in addition to the $6 billion the company has returned to investors.

Conflict is possible. As US markets opened in New York on Friday, Bitcoin was trading at $38,600, down 17% at the start of the year, better than its November high of $68,000 amid rising expectations. reversal in global growth and medium-term bankruptcy. Soaring inflation pushed Bitcoin down.

This is where the world of Morehead crashed.

Morehead became the early leader in cryptocurrencies, getting into crypto after a venerable career in finance. He started trading the Goldman Sachs contract in the 1980s and then discovered Pantera in Menlo Park, California in 2003 after working for financial legend Julian Robertson.

this Morehead.Rising inflation and the way central banks will be key issues in 2022.He previously predicted that inflation and earnings would fall over the long term.

He said the proposal "started to make my career," he said. "I think the end of the story."

Morehead hoped that the reversal of this gap would cause the price of the cryptocurrency to fall, but that did not make him happy with the technology output.

Pantera is not just a bitcoin bet. Investment funds invest in companies that support the cryptocurrency ecosystem, such as exchanges such as FTX, Coinbase, and Gemini, and token investments in blockchain developers. Recently,

Pantera is focused on DeFi, a force that seeks to replace the old way of doing business on Wall Street.

Pete Briger, co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group, who previously worked with Morehead, said "Bitcoin and blockchain are affecting the global economy," said Pete Briger, co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group, who previously worked with Morehead. .

Morehead got too into the crypto space when his brother introduced him to Bitcoin in 2011. He read a few books about it and thought it was a good idea, but he almost forgot.

"Garbageman"

Two years later, Briger called him and leading crypto expert Mike Novogratz at Fortress headquarters in San Francisco to discuss Bitcoin. Briger, a 58-year-old debt specialist who calls himself the “scavenger” of finance, believes Bitcoin could disrupt the banking industry forever.

“Blockchain is a game-changer for the financial services industry,” Briger said.

After the meeting, Morehead pledged to continue his research and, a month later, told Briger that secrecy was the happiest part of his career. His Fortress office started working on cryptocurrency investments.

In addition to the recovery of the Pantara Bitcoin Fund, its capital and commodity floats, which it launched in 2013, are showing a return of 51% and 385% respectively in 2021.

Fortress became Morehead's biggest supporter. Finding these companies early on Bitcoin is unique.

Mosthead said most investors are "highly regarded, like tech companies and Wall Street executives, and have invested in themselves."

By bypassing many traditional means, Pantera can act quickly.

"The CEO of a tech company put $2 million into this fund, and a few weeks later he called and said, 'Hey, what's the deal? Morehead remembers.

Morehead hosts the annual Bitcoin conference called Bitcoin Pacifica from its home in Lake Tahoe, attracting cryptocurrency enthusiasts from around the world.

Briger mentioned the meeting he was attending below. "That's not the kind of people I met in Fortress. There are a lot of artists like cypherpunks, cryptographers, and self-proclaimed anarchists."

Tiger management

It's also a big change for Morehead. He started Pantera as a regular macro hedge fund, especially during the four years he was COO and CFO of Tiger Management.

The first version of Pantera had reached around $1 billion in assets before the financial crisis of 2008. Now, as a pure cryptocurrency investor, it is several times larger. At the start of the year, the company was managing about $5.6 billion, including a $600 million increase in the fourth quarter in November.

Back to December 31, 2021.

The figure was raised by Pantera management to $6.4 billion at the end of November. In an interview with Bloomberg on December 23,Morehead speculated that the expectation of tougher action from the Federal Reserve could lead to a crisis in cryptocurrency prices.

The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which tracks the value of various cryptocurrencies, has fallen nearly 20% since the start of the year, when the yield on 10-year US Treasuries rose 25 basis points .

“Blockchain is now empowered by all the revenue generated around the world,” Morehead said. His company recently opened an advertising platform in Puerto Rico, which has become a hotbed for crypto investors.

In a letter to investors last month, Pantera was considered one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in the history of the US government and the mortgage industry. "

Based on how technology has responded to Briger's vision of impacting financial companies, he said the process has begun, but there's still a long way to go.

"It's like email in the early 1990s, which was very difficult to manage," Briger said. "No one can imagine what communication means today for businesses and the world."

Morehead said that since 2013 he hasn't invested in anything other than cryptocurrencies, so he's not happy with existing assets that are similar to his early career.

"Cryptocurrency is more attractive than any other industry."