Former PayPal colleagues split strategies, as Hoffman goes long on Ethereum while Musk aligns with Bitcoin through corporate treasuries.
Reid Hoffman, the prominent venture capitalist and co-founder of the world’s leading professional networking service, LinkedIn, is heavily invested in Ethereum, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Data cited by the firm shows Hoffman holds $6.1 million worth of ETH in a publicly known address. He also owns a CryptoPunk NFT, which was purchased for 150 ETH late last year.
Investment in Xapo
Hoffman has been a long-time supporter of crypto. He even led Greylock’s 2014 Series A investment in Xapo, a firm that built a Bitcoin wallet platform. He had then commented,
“Bitcoin has the potential to be a massively disruptive technology. It is the leading digital currency and it’s growing fast. As an investor and technologist, I am interested in bitcoin on three levels: As an asset, (i.e. a digital alternative to gold); as a currency (to create a new transactional layer on the internet); and as a platform (to build alternative kinds of financial applications).”
Nearly a decade later, in August 2023, Hoffman announced he would not act as a general partner in Greylock’s upcoming funds and instead opted to remain involved as a venture partner.
Meanwhile, his former PayPal colleague Elon Musk is backing Bitcoin, as Tesla, Inc. and SpaceX hold a combined $1.3 billion in Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
Short-Lived Gains
Earlier this week, Bitcoin and Ethereum each attracted gains after positive sentiment generated by a major US political speech by Donald Trump. But on Friday, both assets were slightly lower in early trading as broader technology stocks retreated.
Additionally, broader institutional activity shows large stakeholders dynamically adjusting positions: analytics data indicate that SpaceX moved over 1,000 BTC (approximately $94.5 million in value at that time) to Coinbase Prime in late 2025 amid speculation about the company’s future public offering.
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On the Ethereum side, significant planned divestments by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin have drawn attention in recent weeks for the magnitude of tokens moved, even though the market remained largely unfazed by these sales.
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