New rumors claim Qatar is making a $3.3 billion investment in Bitcoin

Recently, members of the crypto community monitoring the market activities noticed a new wallet accumulating substantial amounts of Bitcoin. Since these observations were made, some have suggested that the responsible party might be the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, with the new rumor claiming that this particular fund is making a massive investment into Bitcoin.

Crypto market participants suspect Qatar is accumulating BTC

Monitoring the market for clues, analysts have noted a series of regular daily BTC purchases of 100 BTC. So far, the total amount of purchased BTC exceeds 50,000 and is valued at over $3.3 billion.

The unknown entity behind the purchases was since named “Mr. 100,” and speculation regarding their identity and reasons for this kind of behavior continue to grow. While some have suggested that the responsible parties may be secretive billionaires or perhaps banks, others have suggested that it was Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund trying to diversify its portfolio.

While the speculation of Qatar being behind it seems rather specific, this rumor was born from a tweet published by a Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser.

🚨: Max Keiser shares rumors that Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund has stepped into the #Bitcoin arena, potentially eyeing a massive acquisition of up to $500 billion in $BTC. 👀

That's 671 times more than @saylor's current #BTC holdings. 👀

🧐: Only $76 billion worth of #Bitcoin… pic.twitter.com/lBFr09rj2P

— RichQuack (@RichQuack) December 5, 2023

Keiser speculated that Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) might be behind the purchases, and more than that, he also suggested that the goal is a potential $500 billion investment. Since then, the tweet caused a massive social media frenzy which also spread into the crypto market instead, causing a major surge in Bitcoin’s price.

Along the way, speculations continued, and new rumors emerged. For example, Skybridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci fueled the speculation further by affirming Keiser’s claims. He also stated that Qatar might be responsible and that it’s possible that it had added BTC to its balance sheet.

Speculation continues to grow

So far, all evidence supporting the claims that Qatar is indeed responsible is circumstantial, at best. It mostly includes certain observations, such as Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER jet attending a BTC conference, and the experts suggesting that government-level investments into Bitcoin are becoming increasingly reasonable.

Government investments into crypto are no longer a surprising move, especially with institutions like BlackRock acquiding massive amounts of Bitcoin recently. However, all that these observations prove is that Qatar may be interested in BTC. So far, there is nothing that clearly suggests that it had made a move to invest at all, let alone accumulate $500 billion worth of the coin.

On top of that, there has been skepticism regarding the feasibility of such massive investments. Many have pointed out that the amount invested surpasses QIA’s reported institutional holdings.

Then, there are logistical challenges, such as finding sellers in order to be able to buy 100 BTC per day. Things like these brought a fair amount of doubt into the rumors that Qatar is behind the investments. Furthermore, its regulatory stance toward crypto is cautious, and concerns of volatility and financial crimes have resulted in the country making Bitcoin trading illegal.