Billionaire George Soros is weighing a leap into cryptocurrency.
According to Bloomberg, a member of his family office received internal approval to trade cryptocurrencies, an asset that most traditional money managers have avoided due to the sector’s limited track record, lack of regulation, and volatility.
Adam Fisher, head of macro investing for Soros Fund Management, received the approval, but he has yet to make any bets on cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Soros Fund Management did not respond to requests for comment from Coins2Day.
The fund’s green light for cryptocurrency trading comes after the price of Bitcoin, which has served as a bellwether to other cryptocurrencies, has tumbled in 2018. On Friday, the value of a Bitcoin was around $6,600, down from its all-time high of $20,000 in late 2017.
During the first three months of this year, cryptocurrency funds, which invest directly in a range of cryptocurrencies, have shed an average of 52% in value, according to Hedge Fund Research. Meanwhile, hedge funds, which generally invest in stocks, gained an average of 0.4% over the same period.
In recent months, regulators across the globe have started paying closer attention to cryptocurrencies, which has scared off investors. Interest in Bitcoin also appears to have waned, with the number of searches in the asset—which has generally followed its price—also falling since the start of the year.
Still, funds that started investing in cryptocurrency at the start of 2017 have reaped huge profits. In 2017, the average return is 2,908%, according to Hedge Fund Research, compared with a 9% gain for hedge funds over the same period.
Some 167 cryptocurrency-related funds opened in 2017, according to Autonomous Research, while 20 have opened this year.