Billionaires from global philanthropist Bill Gates, founded by Microsoft, to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, weigh bitcoin (even Mark Cuban can’t resist).
After Musk abruptly sent the higher price of bitcoin with pro-bitcoin tweets, Tesla added $ 1.5 billion to its balance sheet – pushing bitcoin even higher.
Now, with top Federal Reserve officials expressing surprise at Bitcoin’s latest bullfight, Bill Gates has warned that people with less money than Musk should “probably be careful.”
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned people about getting caught up in “mania” like bitcoin and … [+]
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“Elon has a lot of money and is very sophisticated, so I don’t worry about his bitcoin going up or down at random,” Gates said. Bloomberg in an interview. “I think people are bought into these mania, which may not have that much money in reserve. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably be careful.”
Later, speaking on the Clubhouse chat app, Gates said he had not personally invested in bitcoin, telling host Andrew Sorkin that he preferred to put his money into “product-producing” companies and that he did not choose investments based on whether they would appreciate in value.
The price of bitcoin is known for its extreme volatility, rising to nearly $ 60,000 last week, after falling below $ 4,000 in March 2020. It returned in the summer and began the latest bullfight in October, exceeding the maximum in 2017 in December, while institutional investors renewed interest in digital assets.
Last week, the combined value of 18.6 million bitcoin chips in circulation reached $ 1 trillion for the first time – double the $ 500 billion it started in 2021 as cryptocurrency mania returned to force.
The price of bitcoin has risen in the last 12 months, rising to about $ 50,000 on bitcoin.
Coinbase
Musk, who briefly passed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world this year, has long supported bitcoin and cryptocurrencies – regularly sending tweets about the “joke” dogecoin-rival bitcoin . Some have suggested that Musk’s free tweets could get the attention of US regulators.
Despite the drop in the price of bitcoin by almost 20% in the last week, many in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community remain optimistic about its prospects – indicating the spectrum of inflation as the interest in bitcoin due to its limited supply.
“Given that the Fed is committed to maintaining economic support and the prospect of a new stimulus package, market concerns about a sharp rise in inflation are growing,” said Artur Sapek, general manager of the trading platform and chart of Cryptowatch, in comments sent by e-mail.
“Whether inflation actually materializes or not, the fact that bitcoin has obviously risen today, the market is beginning to understand and buy the value proposition that underlies this $ 950 billion asset.”