Microsoft founder and and billionaire Bill gates has got something to say about bitcoin again. In an interview with CNBC, Gates said he would bet against bitcoin if he could because he believes cryptocurrencies are worthless investment because they lack substance as an asset class. Gates stated:
“I would short it if there was an easy way to do it”
“As an asset class, you’re not producing anything and so you shouldn’t expect it to go up. It’s kind of a pure ‘greater fool theory’ type of investment… I would short it if there was an easy way to do it”.
Shorting is a method of trade where you bet against the market going down and make profits on the inverse of trends. A short is a way of making profit from the declining value of an asset.
Gates said someone once gave him bitcoin for his birthday, but he sold it. Commenting on ICO’s also, Bill Gates said,
“Bitcoin and ICOs, I believe completely [they’re some] of the crazier, speculative things,”
In the year where institutional investors can short Bitcoin using futures contracts, investment banking giant Goldman Sachs last week appeared to confirm it would not only join in on that arena, but seek to offer clients more direct exposure to Bitcoin specifically.
The greater fool investment, mentioned by Gates, is a theory that some assets are perpetuated by reselling the asset to a ‘greater fool’ who accepts the asset at a higher price than what the previous investor bought it for. The theory suggests that the investment is made in the hope that someone else will buy the asset for more than you bought it for.
Like many critics of the cryptocurrency price surge, Gates did say the underlying blockchain technology had its merits.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, has tested the $10,000 mark on the charts and has briefly dipped down to the $9,300 mark. Litecoin has had a recent good performance on May 5th with a high of $181 which was a 7% rise from the previous day’s close price.
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