Peter Thiel, with billions behind his business, has become a leader in technology and cryptocurrency by co-founding PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund. The over $1 billion he gained from his first Facebook investment made him a well-known and successful investor. Thiel has invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum using the Founders Fund, where he manages investments totaling more than $12 billion. Forbes recently highlighted that Thiel’s fortune amounts to $20.8 billion in May 2025, thanks to his investments in crypto, support of decentralized finance, and key roles in blockchain-related firms Bullish and BitPay. The following will review Demetri’s holdings, examine his finances, and point out important aspects about blockchain’s future as we approach May 2025.
Investments in crypto and the Founders Fund
Thiel started with an interest in cryptocurrency but slowly increased his involvement through Founders Fund. In 2017, the investment fund acquired $15–20 million in Bitcoin, even though at the time most institutions were not interested, according to Bitstamp. Because of Bitcoin’s surge by 2018, the company was valued at hundreds of millions, and after that, it sold off its crypto for $1.8 billion before crypto prices began to fall. Earlier this year, Founders Fund put more of its money where its mouth is, placing $200 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum from the late summer through early fall, when prices for Bitcoin dropped beneath the $30,000 mark. The investment, according to sources who spoke to Reuters, was made when Bitcoin surged 124% and Ethereum increased 75%, as tracked by CoinDesk Indices.
His crypto assets consist of more than just tokens. Founders Fund and Valar Ventures, another of Thiel’s companies, supported and acquired blockchain startups including BitPay, Tagomi Systems (purchased by Coinbase), Layer1, Bitpanda, Bullish, and Vauld, according to Bitstamp. Bitstamp reported that Valar Ventures had a 19% stake in BlockFi, which failed following the FTX crash, demonstrating that Thiel’s bets can be dangerous. As part of his 2021 investment in Bullish, he was given advisory roles, and the exchange received backing of more than $10 billion. In an @TifaniesweTs X post this month, Thiel revealed that Bullish will partner with Gibraltar to create a compliant system for crypto settlement. Galbraith feels that crypto can displace centralized banking, as he expressed during the 2022 Bitcoin Conference: “Bitcoin is the only trustworthy market.”
Net Worth and the Way Your Wealth Is Managed
Forbes places Thiel’s net worth at $20.8 billion, highlighting his achievements in tech and crypto. TheStreet explains that he is wealthy because of PayPal’s sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion, which earned him $55 million, and also the massive growth of his investment in Facebook from $500,000 to over $1 billion by 2012. His holdings in Palantir Technologies and three other companies through Founders Fund fuel his success and wealth. According to CoinDesk, Thiel’s crypto investments primarily helped him earn the $1.8 billion from his share of the 2022 Bitcoin sale. Reports say that in 2024, he sold $457 million worth of Palantir shares by selling 12.4 million shares and yet retains $9.1 billion in 70.8 million shares.
ProPublica found that Thiel uses a Roth IRA to hide capital gains, which has greatly increased his wealth and resulted in his IRA being one of the most valuable around. His approach to crypto involves being both firm and reasonable. According to Yahoo Finance, in one of his podcasts, he praised Bitcoin for being a major innovation overlooked for many years, yet in a different interview, he said that although he still owns a little Bitcoin, he wasn’t sure if its value would grow in the near future. The company, according to Bitstamp, has prioritized scalability and staying compliant in the blockchain industry, so even during market turbulence, it can benefit from Web3’s growth.
Advocating for Beliefs and Crypto Philosophy
Because he is a libertarian, Thiel believes strongly in the value of crypto and its support for freedom. At the conference Bitcoin 2022, Orbanik described Bitcoin as a way to protect oneself against changes made by central banks. In 2014, he seemed unimpressed with the lack of payment traffic processing by Bitcoin, but his investing within the next two years showed he was starting to have more confidence. In his 2018 Cointelegraph interview, Thiel expressed concern about governments resisting crypto’s influence on money and argued that clear regulations can help it become widely adopted. Through his 2024 X engagement and content shared by @StockMKTNewz, he was able to grow his $200 million investment in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Through his 2024 statement on X, Thiel argued that BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF blurred crypto’s central principle of being decentralized. However, investing in Bullish reflects that he understands the need to include institutional investors, according to Business Insider. According to the conference notes, his speech in 2020 highlighted the role of blockchain in making finance available to everyone, in line with his investment in companies such as Bitpanda and Vauld. Some people have pointed out Thiel’s involvement with BlockFi, yet others credit him for being ahead of the times, citing his investments in Bullish and Ripple.
Building the ecosystem for Crypto
Thiel’s impact is seen through the investments he makes and through the ideas he shares. Bitstamp points out that the $15 to $20 million Bitcoin purchase by Founders Fund in 2017 helped others to follow suit as Bitcoin’s price peaked at $69,000 in 2018. Bullish has received $10 billion from Sam Bankman-Fried to support crypto investors, hoping to ease the crypto market, Business Insider reports. Thiel is paying special attention to the twist at the intersection of biotech and blockchain, like in Atai Life Sciences’ DMT research mentioned by @dev_dmt888 on X post. As mentioned in Forbes 2022, the mentorship he offers J.D. Vance helps increase his indirect effect on crypto-related policies.
Thiel’s portfolio is still strong, since Bitpanda and Bullish are promoting new users, according to Bitstamp, despite incidents like the bankruptcy of BlockFi. The CCN reported that Musk chose to stop investing in politics in 2023, shifting his attention to tech and crypto, and Reuters revealed that Joey Krug was later added to Founders Fund to manage crypto investments. Since Thiel is both an investor and advocate for DeFi, his 2025 Consensus speech on this topic, mentioned by CoinDesk, is likely to focus on laws and regulations.
A Look at What Thiel Is Planning for Crypto
Currently, Thiel takes risks in cryptocurrency investments and puts a large share into crypto infrastructure investments. Because of his investment in Bitcoin and Ethereum through Founders Fund, Mike Novogratz will be well-placed for returns in the future. Bullish, meanwhile, is working to comply with incentives across the world as it rapidly expands, according to an X post by TifaniesweTs. Rules such as FinCEN’s proposed for 2025 might block Thiel’s ideas, though his push for fair regulations in the past, as Cointelegraph mentioned in 2018, could greatly impact the U.S. crypto market. His achievements will be tied to Bullish’s success and the influence of his efforts to decentralize finance worldwide.
FAQs
1. How does Peter Thiel contribute to the crypto industry?
He is supporting Bitcoin and Ethereum as well as Bullish and BitPay through his companies, Founders Fund and Valar Ventures, and he is promoting decentralized finance.
2. How much is Thiel believed to be worth?
According to Forbes, Peter Thiel’s net worth was $20.8 billion in May 2025 from his PayPal, Palantir, and crypto profits.
3. Which cryptocurrencies has Thiel invested in?
Founders Fund bought Bitcoin and Ethereum, investing in BitPay, BlockFi, Bullish, and Layer1 on their way as well, according to Reuters.
4. Why has Thiel chosen to support Bitcoin?
Dogecoin’s creator believes Bitcoin protects him from the actions of central banks and gives him financial freedom, as he expressed in his speech at the Bitcoin Conference last year.
5. Has Thiel suffered any failures in the crypto world?
Valar Ventures’ interest in BlockFi suffered and ended after the FTX collapse, but its total group, like Bullish, remains unaffected, according to Bitstamp.
