Brisbane entrepreneur Jeff Yew eyeing $10bn bitcoin fund

A 27-year-old Brisbane entrepreneur has already attracted $20m in investment for his bitcoin company and expects to expand his fund to $10bn over the next three years.

Jeff Yew grew up thinking he wanted to be an architect but it was blockchain rather than building blocks that attracted his interest.

The 27-year-old Malaysian-born founder of Brisbane-based Monochrome Asset Management launched a fund in June allowing people to benefit from the rise of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The fund tracks the price of Bitcoin, which uses blockchain as a trading platform, via a conventional investment vehicle.

Mr Yew said he planned to expand the fund to $10bn over the next three years as mainstream investors, including big pension funds and high net worth individuals, sough greater exposure to emerging currencies such as Bitcoin.

“Institutional investors are still figuring it out because it does not fit into the traditional investment model,” said Mr Yew. “But it is increasingly being accepted by companies such as Tesla, Square, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.”

Monochrome last month closed a $2.5m funding round, attracting key investors including Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer who created Litecoin in 2011, and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Kain Warwick. The investment values the company at more than $20m.

The firm also has appointed two alternative investment sector veterans David Hobart and Kevin Saunders to its executive team.

Mr Yew, who studied architecture at the University of Queensland, said Bitcoin would be increasingly relied upon as a hedge investment in an increasingly volatile financial world.

There had been a spike in interest from retail investors in digital assets as major companies started including bitcoin in their own treasuries. Bitcoin held in corporate treasuries has reached an all-time high of 8.7 per cent.

Bitcoin hit a three-month high of $US50,000 (A$68,964) last week as investors backed optimism increasing regulatory scrutiny meant it had become a safer bet.

“The political situation is not always stable and people have seen the value of money dissipate in times of trouble such as the Global Financial Crisis,” he said. “Appropriation by governments and hyperinflation are issues if you live in a developing country. In Australia, we are protected by our financial system but people in other countries are not so fortunate.”

Jeff Yew. Picture: Renae Droop

Mr Yew said that being able to preserve capital and pass on generational wealth were basic human rights. “But in most parts of the world it is a dream,” he said. “Paraguay and Argentina have both been subject to hyperinflation. The advantage of Bitcoin is that it is not under the control of central banks or government indebtedness.”

Mr Yew said financial systems like architecture were reflective of their times. “If you look at the Customs House in Brisbane, it was built in such a solid way because people were prepared to wait for a return on their capital,” he said. “Today buildings are built quickly because people want a quick return on their investment.”

Bitcoin, which Mr Yew describes as a “digital commodity”, had huge growth potential even though only 21 million Bitcoin tokens will ever be created. “It is still only a $600bn market as opposed to gold which is $10 trillion,” he said.

Originally published as Brisbane entrepreneur Jeff Yew eyeing $10bn bitcoin fund