George Osborne’s venture capital firm cashes in on crypto boom
George Osborne’s venture capital firm is said to have racked up gains of 3,000 per cent after betting on an obscure cryptocurrency that has surged in value in recent weeks..
San Francisco-based 9Yards Capital has invested in Internet Computer — also known as ICP — which was launched by non-profit group Dfinity a fortnight ago, the Telegraph reported.
ICP has enjoyed a dramatic debut, with its valuation surging to $16bn (£11bn) in just two weeks.
9Yards was founded by Osborne’s brother Theo and counts the former chancellor as a strategic adviser.
The fund invested in cypto startup Dfinity in 2018. Instead of taking equity, investors were granted tokens in its digital currency ICP.
Early backers who took part in a $97m funding round in 2018, including Facebook investor Andreessen Horowitz, are now thought to hold 23.2m coins.
Worth just $4 each at the time, the digital coins have since surged in value since they began trading on cryptocurrency exchanges earlier this month.
ICP’s price surged as high as $620 per coin, before dropping back down amid a crypto crash in the middle of this month. It is now trading at around $125 per coin.
ICP, the brainchild of British entrepreneur Dominic Williams, is a blockchain-powered network aimed at decentralising the way the internet is run.
Williams has said the digital coins could help to curb the power of tech giants such as Google and Facebook by reducing reliance on their web and cloud services.
The dramatic surge in valuation for ICP comes amid a wildly volatile period for cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, had seen its price surge this year before losing more than half its value in a dramatic crash earlier this month after China warned it would crack down on cryptocurrencies.