Hedge Funds and Crypto Lure Gulf Heirs Set to Inherit $1 Trillion

In 2020, two young brothers at a 135-year-old Gulf merchant family approached one of its money-managers with an idea: bet on Bitcoin.

Fifth-generation twins — Abdulaziz and Abdulla Kanoo — had been venture capital investors but hadn’t previously pitched a trade to the family office. James Burke, who oversees their family’s public markets investing unit, was concerned the bet could backfire and began writing a paper disproving the pitch. But, ultimately, he realized the 22-year-olds could be onto something.