Bitcoin becoming 'more central' to portfolios as its volatility cools, Coatue's Philippe Laffont says
While investors may have been put off by bitcoin's volatility in its early years, a few factors are emerging that will make the flagship crypto a key part of a portfolio, according to Coatue Management's Philippe Laffont.
The founder of the tech-focused hedge fund spoke Thursday at Coinbase's State of Crypto Summit in New York City.
For starters, while bitcoin has managed to surge nearly 13% in 2025, Laffont said that the cryptocurrency's volatility has come down over time. Bitcoin's dramatic price swings have been a deterrent for potential investors in the crypto – and at one point, this volatility kept Coatue from getting into bitcoin, he said.
"It's intriguing to me that maybe … the cost of getting into bitcoin is shrinking," Laffont said on stage Thursday at Coinbase's State of Crypto Summit in New York City. "If the beta shrinks, that would be very interesting." Beta is a measurement of an asset's volatility compared to the that of the market.
Institutional investors' move to embrace bitcoin was also a sign of maturity for the cryptocurrency, he said. Consider that BlackRock was one of the leaders of the charge to bring bitcoin ETFs to market.
Further, Laffont pointed out bitcoin's performance in 2022 and how it has changed over time. The flagship cryptocurrency fell more than 60% in 2022, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 33%. In contrast, from April 2 to April 10 — the days following the announcement of President Donald Trump's tariffs — bitcoin retreated about 5% and the Nasdaq fell more than 6%.
Additionally, the number of bitcoin wallets that have held the crypto for at least a month and sell their full position has come down "a lot," Laffont said, which suggests investors are holding onto the crypto for the long term rather than trading it.
Bitcoin accounts for a small amount of the world's net worth – about $2 trillion out of $500 trillion, he said. If one assumes bitcoin will continue to grow and be seen as valuable by more people, then it "has to become more central" to a portfolio, Laffont said.
Coatue has invested in private and public crypto companies like data provider Dune Analytics, bitcoin miner Hut 8 and artificial intelligence play CoreWeave. The latter company has a partnership with bitcoin miner Core Scientific. The bitcoin opportunity wasn't immediately clear to Laffont, however.
"Every night, I wake up at about three in the morning and I go, 'What an idiot. Why didn't I invest more in bitcoin?'" he said.
Laffont described his investment philosophy as one that emphasizes the importance of simple, "obvious" ideas over "complicated" ones. While crypto market participants have deliberated over the use cases and potential of the cryptocurrency for years, Laffont said he overlooked the simplest aspect of all.
"That … as long as other people think it's valuable, it gets more valuable over time – and that's what we missed," he said. "Now I go back and I say, this is crazy – why wouldn't everyone have one or two or 3% or 4% of your assets in something like bitcoin that … protects you against inflation?"
Laffont identified three cohorts of his client base: those who are hands off and leave the investing to him, those wondering "why did you miss one of the biggest trends in the world," and the risk-averse ones who feel comfortable "as long as you don't dabble in crypto."
The latter "is the dying population," Laffont said. "Every year there's a little bit less of them. That's the spectrum that you get from institutional investors. Hopefully, we see that distribution continue to change."
While Laffont has become more of a bitcoin enthusiast than he used to be, he still told summit attendees not to get carried away and to approach the cryptocurrency with basic investing principles.
"For those of you that think bitcoin is going to be important, my recommendation is never make it such a big portion of your portfolio that it becomes the driving factor of the portfolio," he said. "You're going to make way more money by having a smaller position that you can keep for 10 years than the big one that worries you all the time."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Should You Buy Nvidia Before June 25? Here's What History Says (and It May Surprise You).
Artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse Nvidia recently impressed investors with soaring revenue that beat analysts' estimates. The stock climbed in the weeks following the report. Investors are closely watching Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's comments about future prospects for the company and the general AI market. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been one of the stock market's biggest movers and shakers in recent times. This is because the company plays a key role in a technology that has garnered everyone's attention: artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia's chips power the training of models that set AI into action, and AI could change the world in much the same way the internet did several years ago. That's why investors have piled into Nvidia stock and have closely tuned in to anything the company's chief executive officer Jensen Huang has said. These comments offer us some visibility on what's ahead for the company -- and even the entire industry. So, it's not surprising that, often, after an Nvidia event, the stock will react. As we look at the calendar, it tells us that one such event is right around the corner. On June 25, Nvidia holds its annual meeting of stockholders. Should you buy the stock before then? History has something to say -- and it may surprise you. Before we get started, let's talk about Nvidia's most recent big moment, and that was the company's first-quarter earnings report on May 28. Nvidia wowed investors once again, as revenue soared 69% to more than $44 billion, surpassing analysts' estimates -- and importantly, the company spoke of ongoing strong demand for its new Blackwell architecture. The platform was designed specifically with inferencing in mind, a smart move considering that is the area of focus for many AI customers. Inferencing is the "thinking" process that results in AI coming up with answers to complex questions, and this requires significant power. "We're off to the races," Huang said during the earnings call, signaling much more growth lies ahead. Nvidia stock climbed in the post-earnings trading session, and though it fluctuated on certain trading days, it delivered a gain of about 6% in the two weeks following the report. Now, let's consider the upcoming shareholders' meeting. The company recently released the agenda, which includes items of business such as the election of directors nominated by the board of directors, advisory approval of executive compensation, and several other matters. These don't stand out as elements that will push the stock higher or lower, though any comments from Huang about the company's prospects could act as a catalyst. What does history show us about Nvidia's stock performance after a shareholders' meeting? As the chart shows, the stock fell in the days following last year's meeting, then went on to rebound in the weeks to follow. Nvidia followed a similar pattern in 2023. And in 2022, the stock also fell following the meeting, but didn't go on to recover so quickly -- in fact, Nvidia delivered a double-digit loss from that point through the end of the year. So it might seem surprising that, in spite of Nvidia's earnings and general message being positive over the past few years, the stock actually fell after each shareholder meeting. It's important to keep in mind, though, that this likely isn't a result of anything said or decided at the annual event. At this point in Nvidia's growth story, investors react to new or extremely strong messages from Huang -- but they may not reward the stock with gains after a "routine" sort of event such as a shareholder meeting. Now let's get back to our question: Should you buy Nvidia before June 25? History tells us there's no need to rush into the stock on anticipation of phenomenal gains following the shareholder meeting. But this doesn't mean Nvidia isn't a buy. The company has built a market-leading position and should maintain this thanks to its commitment to innovation. That makes Nvidia stock a fantastic addition to any AI portfolio, but you don't have to rush into it -- whether you buy Nvidia now or after the meeting, you have a great chance of winning over the long haul. Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,702!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $870,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 988% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Adria Cimino has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy Nvidia Before June 25? Here's What History Says (and It May Surprise You). was originally published by The Motley Fool 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Billionaire hedge fund manager wakes up at three in the morning with a regret
Billionaire hedge fund manager wakes up at three in the morning with a regret originally appeared on TheStreet. Billionaire Philippe Laffont, who has invested in crypto companies like Bitcoin miner Hut 8 (Nasdaq: HUT) and on-chain analytics platform Dune Analytics, has acknowledged that the thought of pouncing on crypto didn't occur to him earlier. Laffont said that every night, he wakes up at about three in the morning and goes: "What an idiot. Why didn't I invest more in Bitcoin?" Laffont is the founder of Coatue Management, a hedge fund and venture capital firm that invests in technology companies. He made the above remarks while speaking at Coinbase's State of Crypto Summit in New York on June 12. Bitcoin's volatility has deterred investors — including even Coatue — during the early years, but Laffont believes emerging factors will make crypto a key part of a portfolio. Laffont drove his argument forward by contrasting how Bitcoin's price movement in 2022 is significantly different from recent times. While it dipped more than 60% in 2022, it barely fell 5% between April 2 — when President Donald Trump imposed tariff hikes — and April 10 — around when he froze the hikes for all except China for 90 days. The billionaire investor thinks it's a sign of Bitcoin's maturity that institutional investors are now engaging with it. However, total circulating Bitcoin worth $2 trillion is too modest in comparison to the world's net worth of $500 trillion, and it needs to become "more central" to a portfolio for it to be considered significant by people, Laffont noted. As per Kraken's price feed, Bitcoin was trading at $105,014.93 at press time. Billionaire hedge fund manager wakes up at three in the morning with a regret first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 14, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 14, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Bitcoin Battle: Saylor's Dream Meets Chanos' Reality
Michael Saylor, co-founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy Inc., speaks during the Bitcoin ... More 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Thursday, May 29, 2025. The event will examine Bitcoin's evolving global impact, with speakers from education, policy, finance, and technology. Photographer: Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg It's rare to see two titans of finance openly clashing on Bloomberg. On one side, you have Jim Chanos, the short-selling legend who made his name exposing Enron, now calling a multi-billion-dollar Bitcoin strategy 'financial gibberish.' On the other, Michael Saylor, the billionaire evangelist who transformed MicroStrategy into a leveraged crypto play, fired back that Chanos 'just doesn't get it' and is ignoring a model that has 'generated $8.4 billion in shareholder value.' This dispute isn't just a squabble; it's a philosophical showdown. At its core, the debate focuses on a fundamental question in modern investing: is Saylor's company a revolutionary tool for wealth creation, or is it just a glorified Bitcoin tracker that trades at an unjustifiable premium? When a legendary short seller calls your model absurd, and you counter by claiming billions in value creation, Wall Street takes notice. And so should we. Beneath the headlines lies a deeper question: what should we value, and how should we determine that? The name Jim Chanos evokes shivers in boardrooms. Best known for shorting Enron before its collapse, Chanos has built his reputation sniffing out companies with weak fundamentals and flashy facades. To him, valuation matters. Cash flows matter. Reality matters. On the opposite end of the spectrum stands Michael Saylor, the philosophical bull turned Bitcoin maximalist. Once the CEO of a quiet business intelligence firm, Saylor transformed MicroStrategy with a bold financial experiment: raise debt and equity, buy Bitcoin, repeat. While Chanos sees a threat, Saylor envisions a future secured by digital scarcity and conviction. It's not just a disagreement over numbers. It's a clash of belief systems: value versus vision, discipline versus disruption, and fundamentals versus faith. The stakes aren't just about one stock; they're about which worldview wins the next decade. DELIVERING ALPHA — Pictured: Jim Chanos, Founder and Managing Partner, Kynikos Associates, during ... More the Best Ideas panel at the 6th annual CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference on Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at the Pierre Hotel in New York — (Photo by: Heidi Gutman/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images) When you set aside the brand and discussions about legacy software, Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, no longer operates as a tech company. It's a leveraged Bitcoin holding vehicle with a public ticker. The playbook is simple, bold, and controversial: issue equity or preferred shares, use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin, then do it all over again. Rinse, repeat, and continue the cycle. This model has transformed Saylor's firm into a robust corporate Bitcoin ETF. But unlike a regulated ETF, Strategy isn't passive. It's actively engineering upside using capital markets. To Saylor, this technique is an innovation. He calls it 'financial engineering for the digital age,' a form of monetary arbitrage. Borrow at 10%, bet on Bitcoin appreciating at 50%+, and shareholders pocket the difference. Critics like Jim Chanos call it something else: dangerous leverage masked as genius. They argue that the company is no longer generating value through operations or fundamentals but through financial alchemy based entirely on Bitcoin's price rising forever. However, others are copying Saylor's blueprint. Trump Media, other crypto-adjacent SPACs, and a crop of speculative small caps are now mimicking this model of equity offerings, hype, and digital assets as collateral. The question is no longer what Strategy does. It's how long the market will reward it for doing it. Never one to hold back, Jim Chanos views Strategy's valuation as detached from reality. At the heart of his critique is what he calls a 'yawning disconnect' between the company's share price and its actual Bitcoin holdings. Chanos argues that Strategy's current trading at approximately 1.8 times its net asset value (NAV), essentially its Bitcoin per-share value, is irrational. 'That's like buying Bitcoin with an 80% premium slapped on,' he told Bloomberg. To illustrate, Chanos offers a memorable analogy: 'It's like saying my house that rose in value from $450,000 to $500,000 last year is not worth $500,000. It's worth $1.5 million because it is worth $500,000 plus a 20 multiple on the $50,000 increase. Of course, that's absurd.' He argues that little more than hype and financial sleight of hand sustain this premium. Chanos disclosed that he shorted Strategy when the NAV premium was between 2.2 and 2.3 times, expecting it to compress back toward 1x. His position reflects more than just a tactical trade; it's a philosophical objection to what he sees as a marketing-driven vehicle masquerading as a technology company. 'This is not a tech business,' Chanos says. 'It's a tracker fund with leverage and a bullhorn.' He believes that the sole significant innovation in this situation is the branding, and he is confident that the market will eventually recognize it. From my seat after three decades of analyzing markets, bubbles, and breakups, I can say this: both Jim Chanos and Michael Saylor are right, but they're having two different conversations. Saylor has built a model that's undeniably worked as long as Bitcoin keeps climbing. He's turned capital markets into a Bitcoin-buying engine, leveraged the spread between the cost of debt and BTC appreciation, and framed that delta as value creation. That playbook has printed shareholder gains. There's no disagreement at that point. But Chanos isn't debating Bitcoin. He is questioning the valuation multiple, and he is correct in doing so. Strategy trades at a ~1.8x premium to its net Bitcoin holdings. Strip away the narrative, and you're paying $1.80 for every $1.00 of crypto exposure. Would you do that for gold? Would you choose to invest in Tesla stock, which has a substantial cash reserve? This conversation isn't a debate about crypto conviction; it's about valuation discipline. As investors, our job is to ask not what the company owns, but how the market is pricing it. Markets misprice dreams all the time. The challenge is knowing when the dream is priced in and when it's overbought. Saylor may be running the most successful macro trade of the decade. But Chanos reminds us: even the best trades can lose their edge when priced like religion, not risk. This saga is not just a dispute between two titans of finance, but it also serves as a lesson in understanding market perception. Don't confuse performance with fundamentals. MicroStrategy isn't a tech innovator anymore; it's a Bitcoin carry trade dressed in corporate clothing. Investors must ask: are you buying a business or renting exposure to an asset? 'Story stocks' often thrive on blurred lines between narrative and numbers. That's where risk hides. Financial engineering, despite its power, has both positive and negative effects. When done with precision, it unlocks value. When misunderstood, it magnifies volatility and obscures true worth. Know what you own. Respect the difference between price action and pricing power. Above all, avoid mistaking a trade for a strategy. This feud between Chanos and Saylor is more than a personality clash on Bitcoin, it's a mirror held up to modern markets. Fundamentally, it compels us to consider a more profound inquiry: what should we incentivize? Should we reward profits or performance? Should we prioritize substance over spectacle? When does bold strategy become reckless leverage? And when does skepticism blind us to financial innovation? Chanos sees a tracker fund in a tuxedo dressed up, overvalued, and divorced from fundamentals. Saylor sees the future of corporate finance leveraging cheap capital to capture asymmetric upside. The market, for now, seems to be siding with the tuxedo, favoring Saylor's bold Bitcoin vision over Chanos' valuation discipline. However, seasoned investors are aware that markets often make subtle changes before making significant ones. Whether it's Saylor's leveraged bet on Bitcoin or Chanos' warning about unsustainable premiums, the real risk lies in the assumptions we fail to question. Pay attention not just to the noise but to what's quietly being priced in.
