Pantera Capital Management’s Bitcoin Fund, one of the earliest crypto-focused investment vehicles, has achieved a staggering milestone: a 1,000-fold return on its original investments since its launch in July 2013, according to research by CoinDesk.

This represents a gain of over 132,118%, net of expenses and fees, and underscores the explosive growth of bitcoin in the past decade.

When Pantera’s Bitcoin Fund began, the cryptocurrency was trading at just $74 per token. The fund purchased 2% of the world’s bitcoin supply, setting the stage for a massive windfall as the cryptocurrency surged over the years. Today, bitcoin hovers near $100,000, marking a 120% increase in value just this year alone.

Pantera’s CEO, Dan Morehead, shared insights into the fund’s journey on social media. Revisiting a letter he wrote in 2013, Morehead said: “The price is going WAY UP. It's going to squeeze up like a watermelon seed.”

In a recent memo, Moorehead continued the analogy likening bitcoin’s future growth trajectory to the continued “squeezing” of that watermelon seed.

Looking ahead, Morehead believes Bitcoin could hit $740,000 by April 2028, which would give it a market capitalisation of $15tn, attributing the potential growth to untapped financial markets. “Ninety-five percent of financial wealth has not yet addressed blockchain,” Morehead said.