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Blue Crest Capital Management, a hedge fund founded by billionaire Michael Pratt, won more than 28% this year after betting on a weakening of the US dollar.
Pratt has been positioned accordingly since President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff blitz in the beginning of April, according to people familiar with the issue.
The announcement sparked a further decline in the dollar, which lost almost 9% this year, as investors worry about the president’s economic fallout from the stop-start trade war.
Moody’s recent US credit rating and Trump’s “big and beautiful” tax bill have fueled concerns about the sustainability of American debt and increased pressure on the US Treasury Department.
This year’s bet on US currency was a central position for Bluecrest.
According to one of the people familiar with Bluecrest performances, it’s difficult to see the trend of the dollar turning back before the mid-term US elections next November, with the exception of major macro events such as China’s invasion of Taiwan. “I feel this transaction will probably last for a while,” they said.
Bluecrest was once one of the world’s largest hedge funds, but after a period of performance and investor withdrawal in the early 2010s, Platt chose to turn capital back into investors and turn the company into a family office in 2015.
Since then, it has frequently made great profits. Bluecrest declined to comment.
The group employs 550 people across the organization, including 150 independent trading teams overseen across Platts, currency, commodities and systematic strategies. Its capital is around $5 billion and uses leverage to expand its position and boost returns.
Bluecrest has continued to actively hire, according to a second business-savvy person, and has recently received full regulatory approval to expand its presence, particularly in Dubai. The company is known for paying traders the largest profitable stock in the hedge fund industry.
