Ruffer Investment Company takes profits on 'defensive' Bitcoin bet

Sold in April and avoided 'spectacular' May crash

Mike Sheen
clock • 2 min read

Ruffer Investment Company has sold the remaining portion of its exposure to bitcoin in favour of "more attractive risk-adjusted positions elsewhere in the market", as the cryptocurrency reached all-time-high valuations in April.

The investment trust reported this morning (7 June) that it had initially built "indirect" exposure to bitcoin as a "defensive investment", amid concern for the outlook for the gold price and to diversify its inflation hedges, but that its subsequent gains meant that the cryptocurrency's "asymmetry… [was] much lower". It follows reports over the weekend that Ruffer had made profits in excess of $1.1bn as a result of dumping its Bitcoin exposure, according to The Times. The firm told Investment Week in December that its exposure to bitcoin at the time totalled around £550m, equivalent ...

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