'Tulip Bulb' Crypto Has 'No Inherent Worth,' Man Group CEO Says

The hedge-fund company nevertheless trades crypto, using quantitative analysis to sniff out price anomalies that can prove profitable.

By Jamie Crawley

Jul 26, 2021 at 9:28 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. UTC

Jamie Crawley

Man Group CEO Luke Ellis compared crypto to tulip bulbs, saying it has "no inherent worth whatsoever."

Ellis described crypto as "a pure trading instrument" in an interview with the Financial Times published Monday.
"There is no inherent worth in it whatsoever. It's a tulip bulb," he said, recycling the oft-used comparison of crypto to the Dutch "tulipmania" market bubble in the 17th century.
Man Group, the world's largest publicly listed hedge fund company, does however trade crypto, using quantitative analysis to sniff out price anomalies that can prove profitable.
"We like to be long and short depending on what the models say is likely to happen to the market and we will trade it long and short just as happily and in as big a size as market liquidity lets you trade," Ellis said.
Ellis has previously called bitcoin a trading instrument rather than a long-term asset allocation.
"We trade around it and try and to provide some liquidity into the market," he told CNBC in March.

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