In 2016, Dan Morehead embarked on a global tour to preach the "gospel" of Bitcoin. This former Goldman Sachs and Tiger Management trader, who had been "completely conquered" by Bitcoin years ago, firmly believed it would reshape the global economy. His faith in this currency was so strong that he came out of semi-retirement and transformed his hedge fund, Pantera Capital, into one of the world's first Bitcoin funds.

This new business was launched in 2013 and initially gained momentum with the support of two Princeton alumni, Pete Briger and Mike Novogratz, both from the private equity giant Fortress Investment Group. The three watched with joy as Bitcoin, initially purchased at $65, soared to over $1,000 by year-end. However, disaster struck when hackers robbed Mt. Gox, the primary exchange for emerging cryptocurrencies, causing Bitcoin's price to plummet by 85%. "People would say, 'Aren't you doing that Bitcoin thing that's already dead?'" Morehead recalled. "It's still alive!" was his constant response.

During his 2016 Bitcoin evangelism tour, Morehead arranged 170 meetings. Each time he entered a potential investor's office, he would spend an hour arguing why this new asset was the most enticing opportunity. The result: he only raised $1 million for his struggling fund. Even worse, Morehead's own speaking fees totaled around $17,000. "I was earning $100 per meeting, just to convince people to buy Bitcoin," he told Fortune magazine.

Less than a decade later, with Bitcoin's price approaching $120,000, Morehead's early difficult years have become part of a founder's mythology—comparable to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak tinkering in Jobs' parents' garage or Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger discussing stock-picking insights over an Omaha dinner.

Today, Pantera's various crypto funds manage over $4 billion in assets, including holdings in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and investments in projects like Circle (going public in June) and Bitstamp (acquired by Robinhood for $200 million earlier this year). In the competitive crypto venture capital landscape, the company's uniqueness lies in its "pioneer" status: a renowned bridge between conservative traditional finance and the once-rebellious crypto industry. At its core, Morehead is a low-key pragmatist in an industry filled with legendary figures.

"I'm stubborn and completely believe (Bitcoin) will change the world," Morehead told Fortune, "so I kept at it."

Bitcoin's Wild Ride

Princeton's "Mafia"

In an era before Wall Street had penetrated the blockchain industry, Morehead stood out in the chaotic early cryptocurrency world. A former Princeton University dual-sport athlete (football and heavyweight rowing), he still maintains the broad shoulders and square jawline of his youth. This was entirely different from the skinny, eccentric types constantly lurking in online forums. Instead, Morehead came from traditional finance and still prefers wearing suit jackets.

Before encountering Bitcoin, Morehead already had a long trading career. After working at Goldman Sachs and Tiger Fund, he founded his own hedge fund Pantera, which collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis. Around that time, a mysterious figure named Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper introducing Bitcoin to the world.

In 2011, Morehead first heard about Bitcoin from his brother and vaguely knew that his Princeton classmate Gavin Andresen was running a website where users could earn 5 bitcoins by solving a captcha (currently worth about $575,000). But he didn't pay much attention until years later when another classmate, Briger, invited him for coffee to discuss cryptocurrencies in Fortress Investment Group's San Francisco office, with Novogratz joining remotely. "From then on, I was captivated by Bitcoin," Morehead said.

The tech world is known for its so-called "mafias," like the PayPal mafia that later dominated the next generation of startups. In crypto, this "mafia" doesn't come from a single company but from a university: Princeton has nurtured some of the industry's most influential projects. Briger and Novogratz were key supporters of Pantera, with Morehead even moving into unused space in Fortress Investment's San Francisco office. Briger still maintains behind-the-scenes influence in crypto, recently joining Michael Saylor's $100 billion Bitcoin holding company Strategy's board. Novogratz founded Galaxy, becoming one of the largest crypto enterprise groups. Another classmate, Joe Lubin, later became Ethereum's co-founder.

But in 2013, Ivy League graduates active in private equity and macro trading being interested in Bitcoin still sounded far-fetched. Briger told Fortune he first heard about Bitcoin from Argentine entrepreneur and early crypto enthusiast Wences Casares while sharing a room at a Young Presidents' Organization meeting in San Juan. Briger quickly saw the potential to disrupt global payment systems, a view he still holds despite believing Bitcoin is still in its early stages. He compares Bitcoin's prospects to the internet, which enabled new forms of information transmission. "It's unfortunate that the way money moves hasn't caught up," he said.

After sharing this idea with Novogratz, they believed Morehead, with his foreign exchange market experience, was the ideal helmsman. When Morehead decided to dedicate the rest of his financial career to crypto, he repositioned Pantera as a Bitcoin fund, opening it to external investors. Briger and Novogratz joined as limited partners, with Fortress Investment, venture capital firms Benchmark and Ribbit as general partners (who later exited). Julian Robertson, his mentor at Tiger Fund and a legendary investor, also invested in a later fund.

Pantera's Rebirth

In crypto's early, noisy days, entrepreneurs had to face extreme market volatility, which now seems like child's play. But Novogratz recalls that the biggest trouble wasn't price rollercoasters, but simply being unable to buy Bitcoin.

He tried to approach Coinbase, then just a year old, to buy 30,000 bitcoins worth about $2 million. A window popped up limiting his purchase to $50. After discussing with Coinbase's first employee, later a prominent crypto figure Olaf Carlson-Wee, they agreed to raise his limit to $300.

However, Morehead's most admirable achievement might be persisting through the downturn from 2013 to 2016. During that time, Bitcoin's price was low, and no one outside the closed blockchain circle cared about it. "During those years when crypto was dormant, Dan was out there hustling," Novogratz told Fortune.

That era also had its highlights, including three annual conferences Morehead hosted at his Lake Tahoe home. In one instance, Kraken exchange founder Jesse Powell chose to drive instead of taking Morehead's chartered private plane. "At the time, many Bitcoin community members were on the plane, and he was worried that if the plane crashed, Bitcoin would be done," Morehead recalled.