Ken Griffin has dismissed allegations that his massive hedge fund Citadel Investments had a helping hand in pampering “Reddit Rally”, calling it “a crazy conspiracy theory”.
Starting with Thursday’s testimony on Capitol Hill, following last month’s surprising rise in GameStop and AMC Entertainment shares, the Wall Street billionaire on Friday rejected the idea of playing both sides of the chaotic short.
Some Reddit-powered retail investors have accused their hedge fund of moving to invest $ 2 billion in Melvin Capital – a high-profile hedge fund whose bets against the GameStop shares they had attacked – even though its stock company furniture was tasked with executing many of the GameStop transactions on Robinhood that squeezes the crippling hedging fund.
In particular, there have been rumors that the Griffin Fund was involved in Robinhood’s decision to limit users’ ability to buy GameStop shares and that he conspired to block retail investors from protecting Melvin and its founder, Gabe Plotkin. .
“If I were to run my business at the possibility of a crazy conspiracy theory at any point in time,” Griffin told CNBC, “I wouldn’t have a job.”
When asked directly if his investment in Melvin, at the height of the short, 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 strong thoughts of financiers on the burning Bitcoin market, Griffin said he has not.
“I just don’t spend a lot of time thinking about cryptocurrencies,” Griffin said. “I do not see the economic foundation of cryptocurrencies. I understand how to value a stock … I don’t know how to think about what a digital token is actually. ”
Bitcoin hit an all-time high earlier on Friday, raising its total market value above the $ 1 trillion mark, after Tesla chief Elon Musk called the cryptocurrency “less stupid” than cash.