The prior investment Pantera made before bitcoin was Tesla Motors. I had dinner with one of the founders and was blown away.
Ron Glantz, our chief economist at the time and my former partner at Tiger Management – where he was a five-time II #1 auto analyst worked on the investment with me. We came to believe that Tesla would radically disrupt the transportation and possibly even energy markets.
In a fun coincidence when we began selling our Tesla shares to buy bitcoin they traded at the same price per share. For much of 2013 bitcoin and Tesla traded at say $40, and $90, and $130 per share at the same moments. We exchanged all of our Tesla stock for bitcoins.
During 2013, we exchanged all of our Tesla stock for bitcoins. Tesla has split it stock a few times so that fun coincidence no longer exists. A better coincidence has replaced it – market caps. For the past six years the two disruptors have had about the same market cap.
The congruence of these charts is amazing.
Dividing the two gives an interesting ratio: the market cap of bitcoin relative to Tesla. While I still drive a 10-year old Tesla and love what they can do to reduce carbon emissions, in my heart I think bitcoin will be just so much bigger in the end. Right now you can buy bitcoin at a 14% discount to Tesla. I think that’s a good sign. Bitcoin/blockchain will ultimately change the world. Buying cryptocurrency here is cheap.
Scroll about 85% way down: https://panteracapital.com/blockchain-letter/its-called-the-70s/
