From Silicon Valley Architect to Crypto Power Player: The Untold Story of Peter Thiel's $1.8 Billion Bet

When a Tech Visionary Entered the Cryptocurrency Arena

The crypto world recently witnessed an unusual move: a U.S.-listed mining company Bitmine Immersion Technologies quietly became one of Ethereum’s largest institutional holders with approximately 1.2 million ETH worth over $5 billion. Behind this corporate treasury shift lies a familiar name in venture capital circles—Peter Thiel. With a disclosed 9.1% stake in Bitmine announced in mid-July, Thiel again positioned himself at the intersection of emerging technology and massive wealth creation.

This move, however, is far from Thiel’s first cryptocurrency play. According to Reuters, Thiel’s Founders Fund began accumulating Bitcoin as early as 2014 and executed a well-timed exit before the 2022 market collapse, realizing approximately $1.8 billion in returns. The fund later resumed purchases in summer 2023, deploying $200 million into BTC and ETH when prices ranged from $1,500 to $30,000 respectively. These actions reveal something more profound than mere profit-taking: they demonstrate a calculated, long-term thesis about decentralized finance and digital assets.

The Original Godfather: From PayPal to Silicon Valley Dominance

To understand Thiel’s crypto conviction, one must first acknowledge his uncanny ability to identify transformative technologies. His journey began in 1998 when he co-founded Fieldlink alongside Max Levchin and Luke Nosek—a company that pivoted to digital payments and spawned the first PayPal iteration in 1999. The 2000 merger with Elon Musk’s X.com formalized what would become the most consequential financial technology of its era.

When eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, Thiel’s exit as co-founder and CEO launched him into the venture capital stratosphere. But his true masterstroke came four years later: a $500,000 convertible note into a then-unknown social network valued at merely $4.9 million. As Facebook’s first external institutional investor, Thiel captured 10.2% of what would become a multi-trillion-dollar company. His subsequent liquidation netted over $1.1 billion after the 2012 IPO.

This track record—identifying paradigm shifts before they became obvious—established Thiel as something more than a lucky investor. He became a thesis-driven capital allocator with an almost prophetic sense for technological disruption.

Building the Ecosystem: Founders Fund and Infrastructure Play

In 2005, Thiel formalized his investment philosophy by co-founding Founders Fund with Luke Nosek and others, initially targeting defense and hard technology. Simultaneously, his data analytics company Palantir (founded 2003) became indispensable to U.S. government counterterrorism operations, eventually listing and earning returns of twentyfold over five years.

Through both personal vehicles and Founders Fund, Thiel backed the defining companies of their eras: Airbnb, LinkedIn, SpaceX, Stripe, and DeepMind. By the early 2010s, Thiel had transitioned from entrepreneur to venture architect—someone who didn’t just invest in companies but shaped entire market narratives.

The Crypto Entry: Vitalik, Infrastructure, and Long-Term Positioning

Thiel’s entry into cryptocurrency wasn’t accidental or speculative. In September 2014, his flagship Thiel Fellowship announced 20 winners, including a 20-year-old Vitalik Buterin—Ethereum’s co-founder. The fellowship, created in 2010 to support sub-22-year-olds pursuing unconventional paths, provided capital, mentorship, and networks without demanding equity.

The timing proved prescient. As Ethereum exploded into a multi-trillion-dollar ecosystem, Vitalik became the most famous fellowship recipient, validating Thiel’s early eye for blockchain talent.

Before that, in 2013, Founders Fund led a $2 million seed round for BitPay, betting on cryptocurrency payments when the sector remained nascent and compliance-uncertain. This investment reflected Thiel’s consistent preference for infrastructure plays—companies that become indispensable plumbing rather than consumer-facing novelties.

The Block.one Gambit and Institutional Infrastructure

Perhaps Thiel’s most ambitious crypto infrastructure play came through Block.one, the parent company of EOS. In 2018, Block.one announced Thiel and Bitmain as strategic investors, signaling venture capital’s institutional shift toward major blockchain projects. But the more significant move occurred in 2021: Block.one incubated Bullish, an institutional cryptocurrency trading platform claiming $10 billion in investment, with Thiel listed among early key supporters.

In August 2025, Bullish listed on the New York Stock Exchange and surged dramatically on debut—transforming Thiel’s decade-long bet on “infrastructure for institutional crypto trading” into public market validation. Separately, his 2019 investment in Layer1 ($50 million capital) supported infrastructure for mining—electricity, chip design, and vertically integrated U.S. mining farms, reflecting his enduring conviction that upstream control and hard infrastructure determine long-term value.

The Recent Crypto Offensive and Joey Krug’s Strategic Role

Thiel’s commitment to cryptocurrency intensified markedly from 2023 onward. In May 2023, Founders Fund elevated Joey Krug, a former Pantera co-CIO with deep crypto expertise, to partner status. Krug’s mandate: establish Founders Fund’s cryptocurrency investment strategy for the next decade while sourcing the next generation of crypto founders and projects. This institutional hire signaled that Thiel had moved beyond opportunistic crypto investments toward treating digital assets as a core long-term allocation category.

Krug’s appointment transformed Founders Fund’s identity—no longer a traditional venture fund dabbling in crypto, but a disciplined crypto-native capital deployer.

Political Power and the Broader Influence Arc

Beyond business, Thiel’s ascendancy extends into American political corridors. Uniquely positioned as a vocal Republican tech investor in a Silicon Valley dominated by progressives, Thiel deployed substantial capital into Trump-aligned candidates and causes. In 2016, he donated $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign and joined the presidential transition team.

His most consequential political investment came through JD Vance, a former Thiel Foundation protégé who co-authored the book “Zero to One” with him. Thiel contributed $15 million to Vance’s Ohio Senate campaign—a record donation—and facilitated Vance’s introduction to Trump, ultimately helping position Vance as vice president. Blake Masters, another Thiel ally, similarly benefited from $10 million in super PAC support for political campaigns.

However, Thiel’s enthusiasm for Trump waned. A 2023 Guardian report cited Thiel’s description of his Trump support as “an incoherent cry for help.” Trump reportedly requested but failed to secure a $10 million donation from Thiel in early 2023, and Thiel ultimately declined participation in 2024 campaign funding.

The Unified Vision: Capital, Technology, and Disruption

Examining Thiel’s arc—from PayPal co-founder to Facebook’s earliest institutional backer, from Founders Fund architect to $1.8 billion crypto trader, to Bitmine’s strategic shareholder—reveals a coherent philosophy: identify asymmetric opportunities in transformative technologies before incumbents recognize their magnitude, build the infrastructure that becomes non-negotiable, and leverage capital influence to shape not just companies but systems themselves.

His cryptocurrency trajectory, particularly the recent Bitmine positioning and Joey Krug’s institutional integration into Founders Fund, suggests Thiel perceives digital assets as the defining financial infrastructure of the next decade. Whether this thesis proves correct, his track record suggests positioning oneself adjacent to Thiel’s convictions has historically been profitable.