Jay van Eck, the CEO of $108 billion asset manager VanEck, said on Friday that he has “well over 30%” of his personal wealth tied up in Bitcoin (BTC).
VanEck CEO A Bitcoin Bull
The revelation occurred during Friday’s first panel on the Nakamoto stage, involving multiple executives at investment managers offering Bitcoin spot ETF products.
VanEck is one such firm, whose Bitcoin Trust has amassed $714.09 million in assets thus far.
BREAKING: $108 billion VanEck CEO says he owns “way over 30%” of his portfolio in #Bitcoin 💥 pic.twitter.com/K0u5D4T79U
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 26, 2024
“I always wanna tell people what I’m doing personally, because they should no,” Eck told the crowd. “I’m like, way over 30%.”
The CEO explained that determining how much money individuals and businesses should allocate to Bitcoin is tough business since the digital currency’s bull thesis seemingly destroys all arguments to sell it.
He cited the company’s research this month suggesting that Bitcoin could rise 50X to $3 million per coin by the year 2050 if adopted as a global reserve currency.
Despite this promise, professional investors are accustomed to recommending portfolio diversification strategies that cause them to sell their Bitcoin – precisely when it’s in the middle of a bull run.
“Everyone I meet at Bitcoin conferences owns way more in their own portfolio,” Eck said. “Why should I be selling Bitcoin if I believe this super bull case?”
Launching Crypto ETFs
Eck’s experience reflects that of Robert Mitchnick, who said Thursday that the “buy and hold” nature of Bitcoin ETF holders is quite remarkable. Since launching in January, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has had just one day of net outflows.
VanEck is far from a crypto-centric company, having issued exchange-traded products for decades. The firm has pivoted to promoting digital assets publicly in recent years, with the manager of its Twitter account frequently engaging with the people and culture of online crypto.
Last month, VanEck became the first company to file to launch a Solana spot ETF, responding to the SEC’s willingness to approve Ether ETFs for trading.
Over at BlackRock, however, Mitchnick said Friday they have no interest in launching ETFs further down the crypto risk curve.
“The next plausible investible asset is at, like, 3%” of crypto’s total market cap, said Mitchnick. “It’s just not close to being at that threshold or track record of maturity, liquidity, et cetera.”