Meanwhile, Sam Altman and VanEck Jumping into Bitcoin

Updated: 11 December 2023

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Don’t invest unless prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, you shouldn’t expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

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The Meanwhile Group, backed by some big names like Sam Altman and the folks at Gradient Ventures, just rolled out a brand new Bitcoin private credit fund. It’s all about giving investors a steady return in Bitcoin and lending to the big institutional players. The team running the show is targeting a nice 5% yield for this Meanwhile BTC Private Credit Fund.

This new fund is pretty smart – it’s trying to avoid the risks you usually see with platforms that lend to individual people. They’re being extra careful about who they lend to. Investors will put their money in as U.S. dollars, but it gets flipped into Bitcoin when the fund wraps up. And here’s the kicker: all the loans and fees are in Bitcoin too.

Zac Townsend, the co-founder and CEO of Meanwhile Group, is super excited about this. He says it’s a fantastic chance for big investors to make the most out of their Bitcoin without giving up ownership – sounds like a win-win, right?

Great interview with @dbaer7, @meanwhilelife’s Director of wealth and asset management on the private credit fund we announced yesterday:

“We think of our fund as an active allocation to BTC as opposed to an ETF allocation being passive.“https://t.co/0mkiPzolmi

— Zac Townsend (@ztownsend) December 8, 2023

The Meanwhile Group isn’t new to shaking things up in the Bitcoin space. Earlier this year, they started Meanwhile Insurance, based out in Bermuda. They deal with life insurance policies where everything – from premiums to benefits – is done in Bitcoin. Right now, it’s just for U.S. customers, but they’re planning to go global.

This private credit fund offers unparalleled potential for institutional investors to unlock the full value of their BTC holdings without compromising their ownership, seizing a unique opportunity for optimized returns. – Zac Townsend

Their latest venture is part of a bigger trend where more and more big players are getting into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Remember in 2021, when the New York Digital Investment Group got a whopping $100 million from major insurance providers? They’re all about bringing Bitcoin solutions to life insurance and annuity providers in the U.S.

VanEck is Going to HODL

And hey, there’s more! VanEck, a big name in mutual and exchange-traded funds, is totally embracing the Bitcoin vibe. They’re trying to launch their own Bitcoin ETF and have even picked “HODL” as the ticker – talk about staying true to Bitcoin culture! Despite some setbacks in the past, they’re not giving up. And it looks like they might just get the green light soon, which could mean a whole lot of cash flowing into Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Big financial firms, including BlackRock, are also trying to jump on the Bitcoin ETF bandwagon in the U.S., where it’s still a no-go zone for such products. But the tide is turning, and there’s a lot of optimism that things are about to change. Stay tuned, because it looks like the crypto world is about to get even more interesting!