As bitcoin the asset eclipses all-time price and market cap highs, and Bitcoin the decentralized network continues to prove its value proposition as an alternative to fundamental issues within the legacy system, waves of investors are feeling the FOMO (or, “fear of missing out”).
Metrics like the price of BTC, unique addresses used or confirmed transactions per day can offer glimpses into the growth of Bitcoin FOMO on a network scale. But they don’t highlight the whales, institutional leaders and influential figures who are publicly signaling support for Bitcoin and bringing significant net worth and legacy clout with them.
So, to account for some of the institutional figures who have publicly FOMO’d into Bitcoin, we present the Bitcoin Magazine FOMOmeter. Below, you’ll find our list of the most influential people who have jumped onto the BTC bandwagon, along with the earliest known date of their conversion, some highlights from their resume and their most bullish sentiments on record.
Scott Minerd
Public FOMO Date:
December 16, 2020
Bio:
Global chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners, with $270 billion in assets under management.
Bullish Sentiments:
“Our fundamental work shows that bitcoin should be worth about $400,000.” – Bloomberg TV.
Rick Rieder
Public FOMO Date:
November 20, 2020
Bio:
Chief investment officer of Global Fixed Income and head of the Global Allocation Team for BlackRock, with some $1.8 trillion under management.
Bullish Sentiments:
“I think [bitcoin] is a durable mechanism that — do I think could replace gold to a large extent? Yeah I do, because it’s so much more functional.” – CNBC
Ricardo Salinas Pliego
Public FOMO Date:
November 17, 2020: Pliego announced publicly that he holds bitcoin on November 17, 2020.
Estimated Net Worth:
$12.7 billion
Bio:
Founder and chairman of telecommunications, media and financial services conglomerate Grupo Salinas. Mexico’s second-wealthiest citizen.
Bullish Sentiments:
“Bitcoin protects the citizen from government expropriation… YES. I have 10% percent of my liquid portfolio invested.” – Translated from Twitter
Stanley Druckenmiller
Public FOMO Date:
November 9, 2020: Druckenmiller first indicated his preference for Bitcoin on November 9, 2020.
Estimated Net Worth:
$4.4 billion
Bio:
Hedge fund manager and former chairman of Duquesne Capital. Famously shorted the British pound with George Soros in 1992, netting billions of dollars in profit.
Bullish Sentiments:
“I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but I have warmed up to the fact that bitcoin could be an asset class that has a lot of attraction as a store of value… Frankly, if the gold bet works, the bitcoin bet will probably work better because it’s thinner, more illiquid and has a lot more beta to it.” – CNBC
Jim Cramer
Public FOMO Date:
September 14, 2020: On an episode of “The Pomp Podcast” released on September 14, 2020, Cramer said that he would invest 1 percent of his net worth into bitcoin.
Estimated Net Worth:
$100 million
Bio:
Former hedge fund manager; author; host of CNBC’s “Mad Money”; co-founder of TheStreet.com.
Bullish Sentiments:
“Gold will do okay, the houses will do okay, those will keep me running in pace. The idea of actually making money, well holy cow, I’ll take a shot at that with 1 percent.” – “The Pomp Podcast”
Michael Saylor
Public FOMO Date:
August 11, 2020: Saylor’s MicroStrategy invested $250 million in bitcoin on August 11, 2020, then bought $175 million more the next day.
Estimated Net Worth:
$500 million
Bio:
Co-founder and CEO of MicroStrategy; author; trustee of online education platform Saylor Academy.
Bullish Sentiments:
“Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy.” – Twitter
Paul Tudor Jones
Public FOMO Date:
May 11, 2020: Jones first publicly espoused his belief in Bitcoin on May 11, 2020.
Estimated Net Worth:
$5.8 billion
Bio:
Longtime hedge fund manager, founder of Tudor Investment, considered one of the best macroeconomic traders in history.
Bullish Sentiments:
“I think we are in the first inning of bitcoin and it’s got a long way to go… Bitcoin has this enormous continence of really, really smart and sophisticated people who believe in it.” – CNBC
Jack Dorsey
Public FOMO Date:
2017: Dorsey has said that he first became fascinated with Bitcoin in 2017.
Estimated Net Worth:
$11.4 billion
Bio:
Co-founder and CEO of Twitter; founder and CEO of Square.
Bullish Sentiments:
“Imagine being born this year, growing up only known that the potential for a global currency exists… It feels like that just accelerates things even faster. So I think there’s a massive acceleration that’s going to happen within the next 10 years.” – “Tales From The Crypt”
Peter Thiel
Public FOMO Date:
2017: In 2017, Thiel’s Founders Fund invested $15 million to $20 million into bitcoin.
Estimated Net Worth:
$5.4 billion
Bio:
Co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund; the first outside investor in Facebook.
Bullish Sentiments:
“I do think people are a little bit … underestimating bitcoin especially because … it’s like a reserve form of money, it’s like gold, and it’s just a store of value.” – Future Investment Initiative
Cathie Wood
Public FOMO Date:
2015: Wood has said that she started buying bitcoin in 2015 at $250 prices.
Estimated Net Worth:
$250 million
Bio:
Founder and CEO of Ark Investment Management, which oversees an $8.6 billion fund.
Bullish Sentiments:
“[Bitcoin is] so much bigger an idea than even Apple, which is a pretty big idea.” – CNBC
Reid Hoffman
Public FOMO Date:
2013: Hoffman has said that he first sought out more Bitcoin knowledge in the summer of 2013.
Estimated Net Worth:
$2.1 billion
Bio:
Co-founder of LinkedIn; obtained early stakes in Facebook, Airbnb and Dropbox.
Bullish Sentiments:
“[Bitcoin’s] attributes all bound together are what convinced me that there’s a certainty that there will be at least one global cryptocurrency and that there’s a good argument that it’s Bitcoin.” – Entrepreneur
Bill Miller
Public FOMO Date:
2013: Miller has said that he bought bitcoin in 2013 when it was trading “at around $200.”
Estimated Net Worth:
$500 million
Bio:
Chairman of Miller Value Partners, which manages $3 billion in assets.
Bullish Sentiments:
“The bitcoin story is very easy. It’s supply and demand. Bitcoin’s supply is growing around 2.5 percent a year and the demand is growing faster than that.” – CNBC
Chamath Palihapitiya
Public FOMO Date:
2013: Palihapitiya’s Social Capital invested in bitcoin in 2013.
Estimated Net Worth:
$1 billion
Bio:
CEO of Social Capital, chairman of Virgin Galactic and owner of the Golden State Warriors NBA franchise.
Bullish Sentiments:
“What it will do is it will create a quasi gold standard. It’ll create an index, except instead of having to own gold where gold is owned by central banks, it is an instrument that has value that’s determined in between its participants, and it’s owned by everybody.” – “The Pomp Podcast”
Tim Draper
Public FOMO Date:
2011: Draper has written that he was introduced to Bitcoin in 2011 and “around that time” asked Coinlab CEO Peter Vincennes to invest $250,000 into bitcoin through Mt. Gox.
Estimated Net Worth:
$1 billion
Bio:
Venture capital investor; founder of Draper Fisher Jurveston and Draper Associates; investor in Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Coinbase and Twitch.
Bullish Sentiments:
“When bitcoin is mature, I expect people to run to bitcoin the way they do to gold when the market gets scary.” – Bitcoin Magazine
The post The Bitcoin Magazine FOMOmeter appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.
