Why is George Soros entering the cryptocurrency market? – Opinion

Despite its brittle nature at the moment, it would appear that Hungarian billionaire George Soros has had a change of heart following his comments in January that cryptocurrency was nothing more than a bubble. Jordan Belfort also believes they are in a bubble and people who got in early got lucky, similar to those who invested early in penny stocks such as Monster Energy before it went big.

Despite Bitcoin having a volatile track record, it is still dividing opinion within the financial markets. Although many are keen to invest in Bitcoin, many are worried about the lack of security, overnight a cryptocurrency could drop 50% based on overaction to a news story.

It was Adam Fisher, who oversees the global macroeconomic investing for Soros Fund Management who was given internal approval to trade in cryptocurrency. Although this may seem surprising in the light of the comments made by Soros himself in January 2018, it is believed that George Soros is no longer involved in the management aspects of the Soros Management Fund, so this could explain the contradiction.

There is other speculation that the comments were made to devalue the cryptocurrency. This may seem unfair, but within the world of economics, Soros is a force to be feared, and for good reason.

Back in 1992 when the United Kingdom left the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, Soros made a series of massive best against the GBP currency, which caused it to crash.

The reason for dropping out of the ERM was due to GBP straying too far from the exchange rate that was designed to stabilise European currencies before the introduction of the Euro. The Soros Fund Management had been building a $1.5 billion position to bet the price of sterling would fall, but this wasn’t the case until a paraphrased article was published in 1992, that stated the President of German Bundesbank, Helmut Schlesinger believed that sterling was a currency that was becoming more under pressure. The move went on to cost British taxpayers millions.

Future Stability

As well as the Soros Fund Management showing an interest in investing in Bitcoin, Venrock has also partnered with a cryptocurrency investment firm based in Brooklyn. With more institutional capital being made available, it is hoped that the Bitcoin market will be a more stable and sophisticated one.

The current state of the cryptocurrency market suggests that now would be the best time for the Soros Fund Management to make a trade in virtual currencies, given that markets have dropped dramatically since the December 2017 peak.

This would essentially mean that Soros Fund Management look to make a tidy profit should other investors follow suit. This can be attributed to Soros’s approach to investing, which he calls the reflexivity theory. The theory is based on two realities, the subjective and objective. The actions that result from each reality will affect how investors approach different markets, which also affects the prices within certain markets.

Essentially, this could mean that the cryptocurrency market is seen as more volatile than it is, purely based on perception. This means that investors potentially invest based on their perception of reality. Soros believes that markets are a diverted vision of reality as opposed to a snapshot of the facts, which can cause investors to act in different ways.

Although this wasn’t necessarily the case back in 1992, it does showcase the Soros Fund Management is well poised to take advantage of any difficulties seen within a currency market, even if that currency as dismissed some months prior.

Source: by Victor McCann