Peter Thiel, Co-founder of PayPal & Palantir
Biography
Peter Thiel was born on October 11, 1967, in Frankfurt, Germany, and moved to the United States as a child. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Philosophy and earned his JD from Stanford Law School. In 1998, Thiel co-founded PayPal with Max Levchin, which revolutionized online payments before being acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. He was PayPal’s first CEO and used his proceeds to become one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture capitalists.
Thiel co-founded Palantir Technologies in 2003, a data analytics company that works with government agencies and large corporations. In 2004, he made a legendary $500,000 angel investment in Facebook, becoming the social network’s first outside investor — a stake that would eventually be worth over $1 billion. He is a founding partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital firm that has invested in SpaceX, Airbnb, Stripe, and dozens of other transformative companies. Thiel is also the author of “Zero to One,” a bestselling book on startups and innovation. His estimated net worth is approximately $9.4 billion.
Orange Pill Story
Peter Thiel’s interest in Bitcoin emerged naturally from his experience co-founding PayPal, which was originally conceived as a digital currency that could bypass government monetary controls. In many ways, Bitcoin realized the original libertarian vision that PayPal had set out to achieve. Thiel recognized early that Bitcoin represented the kind of paradigm-shifting “zero to one” technology he had written about — something genuinely new rather than incremental improvement.
Founders Fund began investing in Bitcoin-related companies as early as 2014, reportedly purchasing millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin directly. The firm also backed major crypto companies including BitGo. Thiel’s conviction about Bitcoin strengthened over the years, and at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, he delivered a fiery keynote speech in which he called Bitcoin “the most honest market we have” and named specific figures he considered enemies of Bitcoin, including Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, and Larry Fink, in what became one of the most memorable moments in Bitcoin conference history.
Bitcoin Philosophy & Quotes
“I think Bitcoin is the first encrypted money that has the potential to do something like change the world.” — Peter Thiel Quartz
“PayPal had these grand ambitions of creating a new currency. We failed at that, and we just created a new payment system. I think Bitcoin has succeeded on the level that PayPal failed.” — Peter Thiel Bitcoin Magazine
“I’m not sure that Bitcoin can work as a payments system, but I think it can work as a store of value. It’s like gold — and there’s just a big market for something like gold.” — Peter Thiel John Coogan
“Bitcoin is the most honest market we have in this country, and it’s the canary in the coal mine. It’s the thing that is telling us that the fiat money emperor has no clothes.” — Peter Thiel, Bitcoin 2022 Conference Bitcoin Conference
“We are at the end of the fiat money regime. Bitcoin is the great alternative.” — Peter Thiel, Bitcoin 2022 Conference Fox Business
“I do think Bitcoin is massively undervalued.” — Peter Thiel Decrypt
“You should just buy Bitcoin. Put some of your money into Bitcoin.” — Peter Thiel, Bitcoin 2022 Conference CNBC, April 2022
“Crypto is libertarian, AI is communist.” — Peter Thiel CoinDesk, 2014
“I think there’s a whole generation that’s been locked out of the housing market and they’ve turned to Bitcoin as an alternative.” — Peter Thiel Mind Matters
“Bitcoin is a bet against the establishment. It’s a bet that we can build something better.” — Peter Thiel Yahoo Finance
Involvement with Bitcoin
Peter Thiel’s involvement with Bitcoin spans both personal investment and institutional backing through Founders Fund. In 2014, Founders Fund reportedly purchased $15-20 million worth of Bitcoin directly, making it one of the first major venture capital firms to hold Bitcoin as a treasury asset. The firm also invested in BitGo, a leading Bitcoin custody and security platform used by institutional investors.
Thiel became one of Bitcoin’s most prominent public advocates in the traditional finance and venture capital world. His keynote at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami was a watershed moment — speaking before thousands of attendees, he called out Warren Buffett as a “sociopathic grandpa” and enemy of Bitcoin, while naming Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink as part of a “finance gerontocracy” standing in Bitcoin’s way. The speech, which included Thiel pulling $100 bills from his wallet and calling them “enemy propaganda,” went viral and became one of the most-watched Bitcoin conference moments ever.
Through Founders Fund and his personal investments, Thiel has backed numerous companies in the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. His advocacy for Bitcoin is rooted in his contrarian investment philosophy and his belief that truly transformative technologies are initially dismissed by the establishment before reshaping the world.
Media Appearances & Coverage
Peter Thiel’s Bitcoin-related media coverage has been extensive. His Bitcoin 2022 keynote was covered by The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, and every major crypto publication. He has discussed Bitcoin on CNBC’s Squawk Box multiple times, and his views on cryptocurrency have been featured in Forbes, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal. His book “Zero to One” is frequently cited in discussions about Bitcoin as a paradigm-shifting technology. Bloomberg has profiled Founders Fund’s Bitcoin holdings, and CoinDesk has covered his various crypto investments. The Joe Rogan Experience and the Tim Ferriss Show have both featured conversations with Thiel touching on Bitcoin and decentralization.
Notable Bitcoin Tweets
Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and legendary Silicon Valley investor, has been a prominent Bitcoin advocate who sees it as the fulfillment of PayPal’s original mission to create a new world currency free from government control.
“Bitcoin is the most honest market in the world and the most efficient market we have.”
— @peterthiel, April 2025
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“Bitcoin will never be controlled by any government. That’s the whole point.”
— @peterthiel
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“Bitcoin has been systematically underestimated for years. It is the new world currency that we originally wanted PayPal to be.”
— @peterthiel
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Related Bitcoin Quotes
