Bitcoin advocate and Serial investor Bill Gross has announced his retirement from active bond investment to manage his own funds. Gross who was named the “bond king” for his role in active bond-trading almost 50 years ago, achieved fame and notoriety in equal measure for his investment advice to pick bitcoin over central banks.
In a 2016 investment letter for the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Fund, Gross painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic future where existing financial paradigms are overwhelmed and replaced by cryptocurrency.
Gross has ended a sparkling career as one of America’s most successful fixed-income investors over the past 50 years, with the perhaps undeserved reputation of a maverick.
However, it must be noted that Gross had a somewhat complicated opinion on bitcoin, variously praising it as an attempt to store value similar to gold and at other times describing it as a volatile currency with little suitability for the needs of modern commerce. When Warren Buffet described bitcoin as a “mirage” in 2016, Gross said:
“Bitcoin and privately negotiated blockchain technologies among a small group of global banks are just a few examples of attempts to stabilize the value of current assets in terms of future purchasing power. Gold would be another example.”