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Ruffer Turned Bitcoin Investment Into a $1.1B Profit in 5 Months: Report

The investment firm says it sold the last of its bitcoin because younger people would not be spending so much time trading as lockdown restrictions are relaxed.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 1:07 p.m. Published Jun 6, 2021, 4:40 p.m.

U.K.-based Ruffer Investment Management made a $1.1 billion profit in five months from investing in bitcoin, according to a published report.

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A Ruffer investment director said the firm sold its bitcoin because younger people would not be spending so much time trading now that the lockdowns are ending, according to The Sunday Times report.
“When the price doubled we took some profits for our clients in December and early January. We actively managed the position and by the time we sold the last tranche in April the total profit was slightly more than $1.1 billion,” Hamish Baillie, the investment director, said.
The firm invested 2.5% of its $27 billion portfolios into bitcoin in November and took profits earlier this year as the cryptocurrency more than doubled to around $40,000.
In February, Duncan MacInnes, the co-manager of Ruffer Investment, said the firm had around $700 million left in bitcoin as the company reported a profit of $750 million overall.
Ruffer made its bitcoin purchase via One River Digital and Coinbase.

Bitcoin CoinFlash Ruffer Investment

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.