Mark Casey doesn’t fit the stereotype of a “crypto evangelist.”

He’s not a twenty-something trader glued to his phone.

Nor is he a tech founder promising to reinvent money. 

Casey’s background is as traditional as they come. 

He studied value investing by poring over Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letters, learned the discipline of analyzing companies from Benjamin Graham’s writings, and polished his credentials with degrees from Yale and Harvard.

Today, he works at Capital Group – one of the oldest investment managers in the United States. 

The Los Angeles-based firm oversees more than $3 trillion in assets, mostly through mutual funds. 

By Wall Street standards, mutual funds are about as plain-vanilla as it gets.

Capital Group is so conservative that when clients begged them to join the late-1990s dot-com frenzy, the firm refused. 

They touted their “rigorous” process, stayed disciplined, and were proven right when the bubble burst. 

That conservatism has defined Capital Group’s reputation for decades.

Which makes their latest move all the more surprising: Mark Casey and Capital Group are going all in on crypto.

Capital Group’s Big Crypto Bets

Casey has been an outspoken supporter of Bitcoin for years. 

He believes it solves three fundamental problems of modern finance:

1. Censorship resistance – Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer design means transactions can’t be blocked by third parties.

2. Security – Its encryption ensures that properly stored Bitcoin can’t be seized or confiscated.

3. Scarcity – With its fixed supply cap of 21 million coins, Bitcoin is immune to the inflationary pressures that plague both fiat currencies and commodities like gold.

Back in 2021, Capital Group invested more than $500 million to buy a 12.3% stake in MicroStrategy, the business intelligence firm turned corporate Bitcoin whale led by Michael Saylor. 

That purchase made Capital Group the company’s second-largest shareholder after Saylor himself.

At the time, the move raised eyebrows. 

But in hindsight, it looks brilliant. 

Today, that $500 million stake is worth more than $6.2 billion – a 12x return in just four years.

And Capital Group hasn’t stopped with MicroStrategy. 

Earlier this year, Casey and colleagues acquired 5% of Metaplanet, a Japanese hotel operator that has pivoted into Bitcoin. 

Metaplanet made headlines by hiring Eric Trump as an adviser and aggressively buying BTC for its balance sheet.

The firm also owns shares in Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), one of the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin miners. 

These investments underscore Capital Group’s conviction that Bitcoin and Bitcoin-related companies can provide asymmetric upside.

Casey Says Play the Long Game

Casey encourages investors to own Bitcoin not as a quick trade, but as a patient, buy-and-hold position. 

He acknowledges the volatility. Sharp drawdowns are part of the territory. 

But he argues that Bitcoin rewards those who zoom out.

“Much has been written about the quick profits made trading Bitcoin,” Casey notes. “But those profits are dwarfed by investors who simply held over many years.”

It’s not just about fundamentals, either. 

“Behavior is so important when it comes to investing,” he says. “Bitcoin is more than a crypto experiment. It’s a social experiment.”

That framing is critical. 

Casey sees Bitcoin as a test of investor psychology and discipline. 

These are skills at the heart of successful long-term investing.

A Buffett-Style Lesson

It’s ironic, in a way. Buffett himself has famously dismissed Bitcoin as “rat poison squared.” 

Yet one of his disciples is building a career around it.

Perhaps Casey sees something his mentor missed. 

Or perhaps he’s simply applying Buffett’s true lesson: think independently, ignore the crowd, and focus on the long-term payoff.

Either way, the message is clear: Even at one of the most conservative investment firms in America, Bitcoin has earned a place in the portfolio.

You should probably own some yourself.