Ken Griffin avoided accusations that his massive hedge fund Citadel Investments helped ruin the “Reddit Rally,” calling it a “demented conspiracy theory.”
Barely his testimony Thursday at Capitol Hill for last month’s surprise stakes in GameStop and AMC Entertainment shares, the Wall Street billionaire pushed back on Friday the idea that he was playing on both sides of the chaotic squeeze.
Some Reddit-fed retail investors have accused their hedge fund of investing $ 2 billion in Melvin Capital, a high-profile hedge fund whose bets had attacked GameStop shares, even when its stock company had the task of running many of the GameStop trades in Robinhood that tightened the hedge fund paralyzed.
In particular, rumors have stirred that Griffin’s fund was involved in Robinhood’s decision to limit users’ ability to buy GameStop shares and that he was conspiring to block retail investors to protect Melvin and his founder, the student. of Citadel, Gabe Plotkin.
“If I had to run my business in the face of the possibility of a dementia conspiracy theory coming up at any moment,” Griffin told CNBC, “I wouldn’t have any business.”
When asked directly if his investment in Melvin at the height of the small pressure could have been a mistake, Griffin replied briefly, “No, I think Gabe Plotkin is one of the best investors of his generation.”
As for the thoughts of powerful financiers about the hot Bitcoin market, Griffin said he has none.
“I just don’t spend much time thinking about cryptocurrencies,” Griffin said. “I do not see the economic basis of cryptocurrencies. I understand how to value an action … I don’t know what a digital witness is. “
Bitcoin hit another all-time high on Friday, raising its total market value to above $ 1 trillion after Tesla chief Elon Musk called the cryptocurrency “less silly” than cash.