Brazilian Hedge Fund Verde Says It Made Bitcoin Bet Before Trump Win

(Bloomberg) -- Verde Asset Management, the Brazilian money manager run by industry veteran Luis Stuhlberger, is among those riding the Bitcoin rally sparked by President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Verde, one of Brazil’s best-known hedge funds, built a small position in Bitcoin ahead of the Nov. 5 vote, while also boosting a wager against the Chinese yuan, it said in a note to clients Monday. The exact size of the firm’s positions wasn’t disclosed.

Bitcoin surged above $87,000 for the first time on Monday as investors keep piling into the cryptocurrency following Trump’s embrace of digital assets during his campaign and the prospect of a Congress featuring pro-crypto lawmakers. Since the vote last week , Bitcoin has surged more than 25% and the yuan weakened almost 2%.

In Brazil, its home market, Verde said that the government “has systematically promised more than it is capable of delivering” on fiscal reforms. Inflation pressures should also lead policymakers to quicken interest-rate increases, the fund said.

Verde is neutral on Brazilian stocks, and reduced its bet on rising oil prices. It remains bullish on the Indian rupee and bearish the euro.

The firm’s main fund fell 0.18% after fees in October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a 0.93% gain for the CDI interbank benchmark rate over the same period, and a 0.29% advance for a basket of local hedge funds. Year to date, it’s outperforming the Anbima Hedge Fund Index by more than two percentage points.

Verde Asset Management currently manages about 19 billion reais ($3.3 billion), down from 20 billion reais a month earlier.