by With so much hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, I wanted to see what the leading investment professionals and experts think about Bitcoin. I did the research so you didn’t have to! Here’s what the pros think of Bitcoin to help you come to your own conclusion about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
Disclaimers: Some of the quotes have been modified for brevity and clarity. The full meaning of the quotes may be hard to capture within its context, therefore I invite you to visit the links and watch the interviews in their entirety. Also the dates of the quotes are approximations based on the article dates.
What the Pros Think of Bitcoin
“I don’t like the cryptocurrencies only because, maybe I don’t understand them… Maybe I’m too old for them…but I wouldn’t touch that stuff.”
-Carl Icahn
- Founder of Icahn Enterprises
- Net Worth: $16.7 billion
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: Feb 6, 2018
- Price on quote date: $7,621
“I would be long bitcoin, and neutral to skeptical of just about everything else at this point with a few possible exceptions… There will be one online equivalent to gold, and the one you’d bet on would be the biggest.”
-Peter Thiel
- Co-founder of Paypal
- Net Worth: $7 billion
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: March 15, 2018
- Price on quote date: $8,338
“As an asset class, you’re not producing anything and so you shouldn’t expect it [Bitcoin] 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.”
-Bill Gates
- Co-founder of Microsoft
- Net Worth: $129 billion
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: May 7, 2018
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $9,234
“Blockchain technology could change our world more than people imagine… Bitcoin, however, could be a bubble.”
-Jack Ma
- Founder of Alibaba
- Net worth: $50.6 billion
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: June 25, 2018
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $6,250.81
“Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don’t produce anything … I don’t have any cryptocurrency and I never will.”
-Warren Buffett
- CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
- Net Worth: $84.6 billion
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: Feb 24, 2020
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $8,562
“Our thesis is that Bitcoin is gold 2.0 and it will disrupt gold. If it does that it has to have a market cap of $9 trillion. So we think bitcoin could price one day at $500,000 a bitcoin. So at $18,000 bitcoin it’s a hold or if you don’t have any its a buy opportunity because we think there’s a 25x from here,” Tyler expounded.
-Tyler Winklevoss
- Founder of Gemini cryptocurrency exchange
- Net Worth: $1 billion
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: 11/30/2020
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $18,803
-Elon Musk
- CEO of Tesla
- Net Worth: $185 billion
- Source: Twitter
- Date of tweet: December 20, 2020
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $22,803
-Mark Cuban
- Owner of Dallas Mavericks
- Net Worth: $4.2 billion
- Source: Twitter
- Date of quote: Jan 11, 2021
- Price on quote date: $33,922
“For where I’m at in my life and my career, I feel like a one percent allocation [in Bitcoin] just makes the most sense… I still think it [Bitcoin] could potentially collapse to nothing. I also think it might head to $100,000. I don’t think any amount of charting or analysis is going to accurately predict when and where this will end up. So I would never advocate anyone buying an amount they’re not fully prepared to lose.”
-Graham Stephen
- Realtor, Youtuber
- Net Worth: $6.5 million
- Source: Youtube video
- Date of quote: Jan 15, 2021
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $35,825
“Crypto, in a lot of ways, is more attractive than gold. It’s portable. You can use it to buy things with… The acceptability of crypto is rising rapidly. And I think Bitcoin and other crypto currencies have a potentially a lot of upside… certainly an allocation of a couple of percent of your portfolio seems to be a prudent thing.”
-Scott Minerd
- Chief Investment Officer of Guggenheim Global
- Net Worth: $1.15 million
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: January 15th, 2021
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $36,178
“What is the future value of the dividend stream of Bitcoin? I can tell you that… it doesn’t take a prize winning mathematician… it is nil. It will never pay you a dividend. If you’re deparate, can you read it? No you can’t. It’s entire value is on the greater fool. Is it not? So Bitcoin could be worth a million dollars a unit if you can find someone to pay it. Bitcoin is 100 percent faith.”
Jeremy Grantham
- GMO co-founder and chief investment strategist
- Net Worth: $18 million
- Source: Interview
- Date of quote: January 22nd, 2021
- Bitcoin price on date of quote: $33,005
Putting it all together:
And there you have it: here’s what the pros think of Bitcoin. The opinions of prominent business leaders regarding bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies range from extreme pessimism to rabid exuberance. Some sit in the middle with cautious optimism. The bottom line is that right now it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict what will happen to the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in both the short term and the long term.
It will be interesting to revisit these opinions in a few years. Were they right or were they wrong? Did they make massive amounts of money from a soaring price? Or did they lose their shirt from an impending bubble?
Let me know your thoughts on Bitcoin in the comments below! Is it a bubble? Will you change your investing strategy?
