Jordi Visser Says Bitcoin's Returns Mirror Leopold's Hedge Fund Before It Crashed — Here’s Why

• Bitcoin is “arguably the best hedge fund ever,” said Jordi Visser, comparing it to the Situational Awareness fund of Leopold Aschenbrenner, he said.
• Aschenbrenner’s fund had ballooned to nearly $45 billion, employed leverage as high as 400%, and was compelled to liquidate its public portfolio at a discount to Citadel.
• Visser said that AI agents will take Bitcoin adoption “through the roof” as they start allocating on behalf of investors with zero crypto exposure.

Investor and market strategist Jordi Visser said Bitcoin (BTC) is “arguably the best hedge fund ever” and he compared the cryptocurrency’s volatile early history to the collapse of Leopold Aschenbrenner’s AI-focused hedge fund Situational Awareness.

Speaking on Anthony Pompliano’s podcast on Saturday, Visser said that the return profile of Bitcoin is similar to what happened to Aschenbrenner’s fund, which was reportedly up by 439% year-to-date at the end of June before a wave of margin calls forced it to sell its public stock portfolio to Ken Griffin’s Citadel in late July.

Bitcoin's Drawdowns 

"Arguably, Bitcoin is the best hedge fund ever. Its returns look like Leopold's. We have corrections. Leopold gave up 70, 80% of his gains. Well, Bitcoin at the very early start gave up 70, 80% of its gains. Has continued to compound," Visser said. 

He assumed that investors who had ignored Bitcoin for years “knew better” in the traditional hedge fund logic, as investors tend to put their money with managers with a long track record no matter the volatility of the asset itself, like Aschenbrenner’s. "These types of returns don't happen in the hedge fund world. If you walk in and you're Leopold and you show I'm making this much money, okay, great, I'll give you tons of money," he said, citing Melvin Capital as an example of the same theory.

Leopold's Blowup

Visser said Situational Awareness collapsed because extreme leverage amplified losses beyond what the fund could manage. Aschenbrenner’s fund, which at its peak was nearly $45 billion, reportedly used as much as 400% leverage before its portfolio of positions, including SK Hynix (SKHY), CoreWeave (CRWV), Nebius (NBIS) and Sandisk (SNDK), was sold to Citadel at a discount as prime brokers pushed for margin compliance. The fund retains its private investments, including a $5 billion stake in Anthropic (ANTHZZX), as per a CNBC report.

Bitcoin Adoption

Visser has described Bitcoin as a hedge against the more broad-based deflationary forces he expects AI to unleash across financial markets. He sees Bitcoin in much the same way as gold, a store of value not based on ideas that could be undermined by faster-moving AI innovation, but he said he’s less certain about the long-term durability of other crypto assets such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Sui (SUI).

He added that crypto adoption "will go through the roof" once AI agents become more directly involved in investing decisions on behalf of people who currently hold no exposure to the asset class.

Bitcoin Ends July In The $60K

Bitcoin consolidated in the low-to-mid $60,000s after falling below the 200-week moving average, a level that has coincided with cycle lows in the past, after closing July near $62,800. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price was trading around $62,910, up over 0.7% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Bitcoin remained in the ‘Bearish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘low’ levels over the past day.

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