Founder of Japan’s multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, has reportedly suffered a $130 million loss in personal wealth after investing in Bitcoin.

According to The Wall Street Journal (Apr 23), the billionaire and Japan’s second wealthiest individual had invested heavily in the digital currency using his personal funds when Bitcoin’s value was soaring around $20,000 towards the end of 2017.

This was around the time that SoftBank Group purchased asset management firm Fortress Investment. Son had invested in the Bitcoin on recommendation by Fortress’ co-chairman Peter Briger. By the time Son decided to sell out his entire stake at the beginning of 2018, Bitcoin had fallen dramatically, costing him in excess of $130 million.

Bloomberg currently estimates Son’s net worth to be around $19 billion, growing almost 57% on year to date. Softbank Group owns stakes in over 1,000 companies, including Yahoo Japan and China’s Alibaba. Its reported revenue for the year up till March 31, 2018 was JPY 9.2 trillion (USD 82.7 billion).

In February, The Crypto Sight reported that the group’s telecommunications arm SoftBank Corp is leading a new blockchain-powered digital identification working group together with TBCASoft from the US.