Level72 founder Steve Cohen leaves Twitter after household receives threats

Steven A. Cohen

Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Steve Cohen, the founder of Point72 hedge fund and owner of the New York Mets, turned off his Twitter account after his family received threats in the GameStop trading frenzy this week.

“I really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter, which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that resulted in our family receiving personal threats,” Cohen said in a statement on Saturday.

“So I’m taking a break for the time being. We have other options to listen to your suggestions and keep advocating,” he said.

Cohen’s hedge fund, which manages nearly $ 19 billion in assets, lost nearly 15% this year after small investors drove shares of video game retailer GameStop, a source familiar with the matter told the New York Times.

The losses at Point72 are mainly due to the company’s investment in the hedge fund Melvin Capital, which bet against GameStop and had to receive emergency money of nearly $ 3 billion from two outside investors, including Point72.

Cohen, who bought the Mets for about $ 2.5 billion in November, was faced with questions on Twitter about how Melvin’s losses would affect the baseball team.

Cohen also had a back-and-forth with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on Twitter Thursday after Portnoy accused Cohen of being involved in controversial trade restrictions in GameStop for apps like Robinhood.