Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Holds Bitcoin From 2013 Amid Talk of Public Listing

Palo Alto, Calif., investment firm Social Capital invested in bitcoin (BTC) in 2013, CEO Chamath Palihapitiya revealed Wednesday in an investment conference call. Palihapitiya made the disclosure on a Sept. 16 call about Social Capital’s plans to list Opendoor on the New York Stock Exchange through Social Capital Hedosophia II, one of six special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) registered with former DST Global partner Ian Osborne’s Hedosophia investment group to take companies they acquire public.

In 2018, an annual investor letter said at the time that Social Capital’s largest investments were bitcoin, Amazon and the San Francisco Golden State Warriors basketball team, in which Palihapitiya owns a minority stake. A senior vice president of Facebook from 2007 to 2011 when he founded Social Capital, Palihapitiya has fawned over bitcoin in interviews and media appearances, calling it “schmuck insurance” to “hedge against the traditional financial infrastructure.”

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