Amitabh Bachchan rides Bitcoin high, sees $250,000 investment surge to $17.5 million
ou may have been hearing about Bitcoin a little too much these days thanks to its sudden meteoric rise in value. In fact, Bitcoin prices are riding an all-time high right now having crossed the $20,000 (approx Rs 12,81,000) mark a few days ago. Many who invested in the cryptocurrency for years have now seen their worth suddenly shoot up exponentially. One such person riding the Bitcoin wave is Amitabh Bachchan whose investment of $250,000 in Meridian back in 2015 is now seeing a value of $17.5 million.
Roughly two and a half years ago in May 2015, Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan invested $250,000 as part of a personal stock investment in Meridian Tech Pte, a Singapore-based firm founded by Venkata Srinivas Meenavalli, according to a report by Economic Times. One of Meridian's prime asses Ziddu.com was acquired by another Meenavalli-backed company called LongFin Corp two days after the latter was listed on NASDAQ.
When the Bachchan's invested in Meridian in 2015, Ziddu.com was known as a cloud storage and e-distribution startup. In December, however, the company was described as "a Blockchain technology empowered solutions provider" offering microfinance using "crypto-currencies across continents." These terms such as "Blockchain" and "crypto-currency" helped catapult LongFin stocks to more 1,000 per cent between last Wednesday and Monday thanks to the current interest in Bitcoin. After the deal to acquire Ziddu.com was announced, stock rose past 2,500 per cent. All of this it seems meant something good for the Bachans due to their investment in Meridian.
"In lieu of their holding in Meridian Tech, Bachchans received 250,000 shares of LongFin following the asset purchase," Meenavalli told ET. With LongFin's stock price at $70 per share as of Monday, Bachchans' holding in LongFin is now valued at $17.5 million (approx Rs 114 crores). Meenavalli explains the valuation, saying, ""It's crazy... the global euphoria over Blockchain is sweeping the world...no intrinsic value can be attached."
LongFin's press release explains that Ziddu conducts micro-lending against warehouse receipts. It uses Ziddu Warehouse Coin, which is a smart contract that enables importers and exporters to use their Ziddu coins that are loosely pegged to Ethereum and Bitcoing Crypto-Currency. This has lead to the LongFin stock frenzy, which could die doen after the Bitcoin bubble bursts as many analysts beilieve. Bitcoin prices have skyrocketed in recent weeks and is currently valued at $16,000 per Bitcoin after touching $20,000 a few days ago.
It is still unknown what the Bachchans' plan to do with their share. They could cash in seeing as how the value is still high right now or risk the potential collapse in value soon. ET tried reaching out to Amitabh Bachchan on the same, but did not receive an answer at the time of writing this.