Billionaires from Microsoft founder, who has become global philanthropist Bill Gates, to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, weigh in on bitcoin (even Mark Cuban can’t resist).
After Musk drove bitcoin price sharply higher with pro-bitcoin tweets, Tesla added $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin to its balance sheet, pushing bitcoin even higher.
With top Federal Reserve officials expressing surprise at bitcoin’s latest bull run, Bill Gates has warned that people with less money than Musk “should probably watch out.”
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates warned people against getting caught up in “manias” like bitcoin and [+]
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“Elon has tons of money and he’s very sophisticated, so I’m not worried about his bitcoin going up or down randomly,” said Gates. Bloomberg in an interview. ‘I really think people are getting into these manias who may not have that much money to spare. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably be careful. ‘
Later, when talking about the Clubhouse chat app being invite-only, Gates said he has not personally invested in bitcoin, telling host Andrew Sorkin that he preferred to put his money into companies that ‘ making products ”and that he did not choose his investments based on whether they would appreciate in value.
Bitcoin price is known for its extreme volatility, which spiked to nearly $ 60,000 last week after crashing below $ 4,000 in March 2020. It rebounded over the summer and began its final bull run in October, hitting its all-time high in December 2017 when institutional investors showed renewed interest in digital assets.
Last week, the combined value of the 18.6 million bitcoin tokens in circulation reached $ 1 trillion for the first time – double the $ 500 billion it started in 2021 when the cryptocurrency mania returned.
Bitcoin price has skyrocketed in the last 12 months, rising to around $ 50,000 per bitcoin.
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Musk, who this year briefly passed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person, has long been a supporter of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies – regularly tweeting about “joke” bitcoin-rival dogecoin. Some have suggested that Musk’s free-wheeling tweets could grab the attention of US regulators.
Despite bitcoin price falling nearly 20% in the past week, many in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community remain optimistic about the outlook – noting the specter of inflation that is driving interest in bitcoin due to the limited supply.
“With the Fed’s renewed commitment to maintain economic support, and the prospect of a new stimulus package, market concerns about a sudden surge in inflation are mounting,” said Artur Sapek, the general manager of cryptocurrency trading and charting platform. Cryptowatch, in comments by email.
“Regardless of whether inflation actually materializes or not, the fact that bitcoin is soaring today highlights that the market is beginning to understand and buy into the value proposition that supports this $ 950 billion value.”