Trump’s Former Pro-Bitcoin Chief of Staff Now Runs a Hedge Fund

Former White House chief of staff under U.S. President Donald Trump Mick Mulvaney is running a hedge fund. Since 2014 Mulvaney has been recognized as a pro-Bitcoin (BTC) official, encouraging practical regulation of cryptocurrencies.

The new fund called Exegis Capital was announced during a podcast with S&P Global Market Intelligence. Mulvaney would collaborate with former Sterling Capital Management portfolio manager Andrew Wessel.

Could Mulvaney’s pro-Bitcoin stance have any effect?

At the 2014 “Bitcoin Demo Day” conference, Mulvaney said he would like to see the government take its time in regulating Bitcoin. 

He said the top cryptocurrency has the potential to become a medium of trade and a means of payment. Mulvaney said at the time:

“My interest in it is to just try and make sure that government doesn’t act too soon in such a fashion that curbs the potential for Bitcoin. Because I see potential for Bitcoin as a medium of trade and as a transactional tool, and I'd hate to see the government make decisions early that sort of retard its growth.”

Since then, he has continuously encouraged the government to efficiently regulate the cryptocurrency market. When Mulvaney was initially appointed as the White House chief of staff, the sentiment among cryptocurrency industry executives was generally positive.

It remains to be seen whether Mulvaney’s enthusiastic stance towards Bitcoin would lead the fund to get involved in the cryptocurrency market.

In recent weeks, the Bitcoin market has seen a spike in the inflow of institutions. Most recently, Fidelity Investments filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to operate a Bitcoin fund.

As Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 26, Fidelity Investments President Peter Jubber filed the Form D for a Bitcoin index product with a $100,000 minimum investment.

Previously, Fidelity said in a paper entitled “Bitcoin Investment Thesis: An Aspirational Store of Value” that Bitcoin has the properties of a store of value. The paper reads:

“Many investors consider Bitcoin to be an aspirational store of value in that it has the properties of a store of value but has yet to be widely accepted as such.”

The growing institutional activity in the Bitcoin market naturally raises the speculation on whether more hedge funds would enter the cryptocurrency space.

Fund unlikely to get into cryptocurrencies in the near term

In the near term, Mulvaney is unlikely to actively consider Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies due to his ties with the administration.

While Mulvaney is no longer the White House chief of staff, he still remains a special envoy. Given the Trump administration’s negative stance towards Bitcoin, the probability that Exegis Capital would seek exposure to cryptocurrencies remains low, at least for the foreseeable future.