Dan Morehead, CEO and founder of Pantera Capital and a digital currency investor, told CNBC’s Squawk Box bitcoin’s price could fall 50 percent next week to last month’s lowest levels. In the long run, however, he said bitcoin will far surpass its current prices.
Big blockchains such as bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are still young players in what will be a multi-decade run, said Morehead, who first bought bitcoin when it was $72. He stressed that there will still be plenty of gains and losses for such youthful currencies.
In a year, he predicted bitcoin’s price will be much higher than it is at the present time.
A Veteran Observer
Morehead’s financial career started as a mortgage-backed security trader at Goldman Sachs. He also was the chief financial officer who oversaw macro trading at the hedge fund, Tiger Management, founded by investor Julian Robertson.
Morehead launched Pantera Capital in 2003 as an institutional investor focused strictly on digital currencies. The company began its first cryptocurrency fund 10 years later.
The fund grew 60% in November and December, and over 12,000% in four years.
Moorehead said cryptocurrency mining is expanding rapidly. He said it was doubling every six weeks at one time, comparing it to “Moore’s Law on crack.” Mining has recently become very competitive and more difficult, however.
He remains optimistic about bitcoin as a whole, and described digital currencies as “digital gold.”
Many see the recent launch of bitcoin futures as a step towards making digital currency a legitimate asset class, while others simply see bitcoin as a bubble with futures being a way to bet against it.
Also read: Pantera Capital to raise $100 million for ICO fund
Morehead Raises Funds For Token Sales
Morehead said in June he wanted to raise $100 million by the summer’s end to focus exclusively on ICOs. The fund at that point already raised $35 million.
Pantera was established to purchase tokens prior to the public sale, then again at the auction. The new currencies have different attributes and report to different regulatory agencies. Pantera looks at each project on an individual basis, and has invested Ox, FunFair, Omise and Civic. The fund’s preference is for protocols where tokens represent the only exposure to the network.