Bitcoin Forum

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son reportedly lost $130 million of his personal fortune with bitcoin

Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of SoftBank Group Corp., made a huge personal bet on bitcoin just as prices for the digital currency peaked, losing more than $130 million when he sold out, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/softbank-founder-masayoshi-son-reportedly-lost-130-million-of-his-personal-fortune-with-bitcoin-2019-04-23

Buy high, sell low happens also to the super rich  :D

I can't believe a professional financier would buy at the emptiest peak of all time and then sell when it's in the toilet. There's now enough track record to at least get a little taste of what might happen in either direction.

A friend of a friend reportedly lost his mind after betting something like £300,000 with similar timing. When they told me I just said 'wut? Why not wait?'. I think everyone should have a complete market cycle uploaded into their mind a la the Matrix before making their first buy.

i'm sure glad they don't! these people put food on my table. the existence of impatient, greedy, and fearful investors is the reason why the rest of us can profit from trading the markets and also accumulate cheap for the next cycle.

someone's gotta sell the bottom! :D

(although apparently he sold out in early 2018 long before the crash to $3ks. he must have had a massive position)

I can understand some nincompoop setting their inheritance on fire, but someone like that presumably has teams poring over things and advisers who sit in the bath with them.

It does say he favours short term bets but in that case he should've been heavy on stop losses or run away as soon as he gained his first 5-10%. Or perhaps he bought just after the peak. Even if he was high at the time he should be able to know a bubble when he sees it.

Even the most professional traders/investors are just people like you and me in the end--they fomo in just as hard as we do, so there isn't much of a difference here aside from our wallet size. Greed is a bitch either way.

Most professionals don't dare to bet against the trend, but do cover their risks with options would the price take a dive, so I am not sure whether that's the case here or not. I hope for him he did, else he's a mega sucker.

Did he do this on his own or he has "professionals" to help him? I believe it's the former because he doesn't know what he is doing. Doubt that he had any kind of help since his losses won't even reach that high if someone already told him to bail out. This is just a good example how literally anyone can be a victim on their own greed. Buying at the peak without any plans is simply a dumb newbie move thinking that he can still catch the train when everybody is going down to the last station.

It is all the more unexplainable for me, as Softbank is a technology group and invests in startups in a big way. Softbank has shares in many well-known startups. So the company and the founder should have the knowhow to estimate the buy situation, especially if you invest such high sums. If he lost $ 130 million, he must have invested at least a quarter of a billion. Unbelievable.

Also a question on my mind too.Its really impossible for these dudes on not having that kind of simple basic knowledge on when to get in specifically when we do talk about investments.
They are already big players which are definitely aware on how do market works. Maybe these fellas just being dragged out on the hype which causes for that loss.
Buy high sell low is a common mistake for those people who havent much idea on crypto market.

Peter Briger was responsible for the recommendation. (https://angel.co/fortress-investment-group) He is CEO of Fortress Investment Group. Which invests in companies such as Pantera Capital, Xapo among others. I believe that this news is not completely complete. I believe he has invested in companies and funds, not just Bitcoin. And eventually, it will recover the investment, even losing money buying at ATH and selling soon after.

I still have doubt over this news. Looks like he's not that professional when it comes to investing and only look for short-term gains. There's no loss as long as they don't sell it, or buying back when the price went deep. Didn't they do any study of Bitcoin to know the 'real value' of it and just went straight FOMOed?

Unbelievable.

I could still assume that such people made a mistake by buying Bitcoins at the end of 2017 at the peak of their price. However, selling them then now, when the price of Bitcoin fell from comparison with the peak, four times, it is already stupid. He is a billionaire, I think, he didn’t need money so urgently to do stupid things. All you need is to wait until Bitcoin rises again in its price. I do not understand the logic of his actions.

No man would ever escape from this.

http://i64.tinypic.com/2s9cbx1.jpg

Meh, the article is vague and the date it is released in relation to the actual loss is dubious.

It wouldn't surprise me if this is an article they were waiting to release for months now, and for whatever reason considered a good time to do it now.

It also wouldn't surprise me if he shorted the crap out of Bitcoin on platforms like Bitmex and dumped spot at a loss to tank the price. In that case it wouldn't really be an overall loss, but more an interesting loss he can book and offset it against the profits he will be making in the next year. No way this guy is as stupid as this article paints him off to be.

There is nothing surprising in this loss if it occurred at all, or this news is just another one in a series of attempts to show how every investment in bitcoin actually results in a loss.

The article is described Masayoshi Son as person who like "quick investment decisions and big risky bets", so we can actually call him a gambler too. The fact that his net worth is 23$ billion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masayoshi_Son) speaks for itself. In this bitcoin investment he did not lost even 1% of his money, so talk of a loss is really trivial thing.

Haunted by taxmen? Report you bought Bitcoin at the ATH and sold at much lower price losing more than $130 million along the way. Problem solved! :)

I'm not surprised a smart guy like Masayoshi Son, is not bragging about his super-profits, but trying to do exactly the opposite.

We see the same thing each time bitcoin's fiat price goes up.  More and more people jumping on the bandwagon not realizing that this is a long term proposition.  Every time it is the same thing: bitcoin is doomed, sell now, it will go to zero, panic, panic, panic.  And so far every time, people who just bought (or mined) and held for the long term have done well.

Once burned it is hard to go back. However, the temptation might be too strong to resist. Bitcoin is going to pump this year, hopefully he will buy back in but at the right time

Awts it's sad story for him if this news is truth because I can't believe a businessman is very wise they didn't sell their bitcoin in lower value.

Buy high, sell low happens also to the super rich  :D
[/quote]I could still assume that such people made a mistake by buying Bitcoins at the end of 2017 at the peak of their price. However, selling them then now, when the price of Bitcoin fell from comparison with the peak, four times, it is already stupid. He is a billionaire, I think, he didn’t need money so urgently to do stupid things. All you need is to wait until Bitcoin rises again in its price. I do not understand the logic of his actions.
[/quote]


Maybe it's a mistake but actually selling in low bitcoin because have purpose  either he need money for the expansion for their business that why they to gamble  their bitcoin.

That's what baffles me as well. But who can verify that these transactions actually took place? Probably nobody. Everything is going to remain "reportedly" until the investor himself actually clarifies in public, which probably will never happen.

The thing is that bitcoin itself did not contribute to these losses. The market movements did. The market cycles did. And he should have judged that more precisely than what he did.

I personally back in 2017 started to unload as soon as it became clear fear of missing out was what was driving the macro crypto bull market, while buying back bit by bit when prices regressed down below 5 figures. I'm surprised at the decision by a guy who's been through so many bubbles to not recognise the bubble but instead, try enter at the peak.

according to people familiar with the matter

True or not, this news is another sensationalistic garbage from the financial news media to get more hits. It also creates an indirect kind of fud to scare people away from buying bitcoin, I reckon.

We don't know the details of why he decided to sell at a loss. There is a big possibility that a very opportunity not worthy to pass came on his way that is why he decided to let go of his Bitcoin hoard. People like this guy know business, and they know how to calculate risks. So on my personal view, though we may not agree with his decision, it can be hard to judge him as we are not the one on his own shoe. What is certain is that $130 Million is a lot of money...and that can be the reason why this is reported and why many people are at awe.

Who cares? I bet that money is just a few dollars for them. This is not suppose to be a big deal because if he did not sell it then he still have not lose anything and its value just dropped much smaller. And this also proves that being super rich does not make your investments always succeed.

When you tried to read up the article its said that he do sell off his bitcoin "Son sold in early 2018 after bitcoin had plummeted, the people said."
The question here is that on how much money he do bet or simply invest when the market is booming up? Just wondering how these big tycoons
tried to risk up investments when the market is hyping.  :D