- Some of the world’s most prominent moneyed-men are backing the investing case for bitcoin, even as it drifts into 2022.
- Given that for now at least, bitcoin is worth only what someone else will pay for it, narrative plays a key role in determining value, and by extension price.
Some of the world’s most prominent moneyed-men are backing the investing case for bitcoin, even as it drifts into 2022.
The new converts include Thomas Peterffy, who as recently as 2017, took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal warning of the dangers that bitcoin futures posed to capital markets and is now saying that it’s “prudent” to have 2% to 3% of one’s personal wealth in cryptocurrencies, just in case fiat currencies go to “hell.”
Hungarian-born Peterffy who founded the Interactive Brokers Group that recently offered customers the ability to trade bitcoin, ether, Litecoin and bitcoin cash, has revealed that he himself owns bitcoin and his firm has moved to offer cryptocurrency trading after detecting “urgency” from customers to get in on the action.
Peterffy said that while cryptocurrencies could reap extraordinary returns, the opposite could also be true, which offers little comfort or guidance to investors looking at the nascent asset class.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Peterffy revealed,
“I think it can go to zero, and I think it can go to a million dollars. I have no idea.”
That humility with respect to the direction that bitcoin could take next represents the opportunity and perils of the cryptocurrency space.
Given that for now at least, bitcoin is worth only what someone else will pay for it, narrative plays a key role in determining value, and by extension price.
Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency genie may be out of the bottle and it looks like there’s no way to stuff it back in with investors large and small diving into bitcoin and ether, NFTs and DeFi tokens with reckless abandon.
Another billionaire investor Ray Dalio recently revealed that he was holding at least some bitcoin and ether in his portfolio, just months after questioning the ability of cryptocurrencies to serve as a store of value.
According to the Bridgewater Associates founder, Dalio views the investments into cryptocurrencies as alternative money, in a world where inflation erodes buying power.
Legendary macro investor Paul Tudor Jones has long disclosed his investments in bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and almost half of all family offices served by Goldman Sachs Group claim to be interested in adding cryptocurrencies to their portfolios in a recent survey.
