Bill Gates on bitcoin: warns people with ‘less money than Elon Musk’ to ‘watch out’
All that Mr Musk did was send a few tweets saying that Tesla had added $1.5Billion worth of Bitcoin into it’s financial plan, an influence that boosted prices higher still.
Many people have been surprising by the bitcoin craze and how sustainable it appears to be, however, Mr Gates has warned that those not in Mr Musks’ financial situation they should be wary of the cryptocurrency.
“Elon has tons of money and he’s very sophisticated, so I don’t worry that his bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down,” Mr Gates told Bloomberg in an interview.
“I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare.
Should you invest in Bitcoins? Bill Gates says yes but only if you are Elon Musk
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates has an interesting take on who should buy Bitcoins. He being the third richest man in the world said that Bitcoins are not for him because he has less money than Tesla CEO Elon Musk. So basically anybody who has less money than Musk should not invest in Bitcoin. Musk has been very vocal about his passion for Bitcoin. His company Tesla recently invested $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency.
Gates during an interview with Bloomberg TV had said that Bitcoin is not for everyone and only the richest person in the world should consider investing in it.
“Elon has tons of money and he’s very sophisticated, so I don’t worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down.I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out,” Gates said in the interview.
Bitcoin’s value doubled after Tesla purchased $1.5bn of the currency and accepted it as a mode of payment. Musk soon after his company made an investment called Bitcoin a less dumb form of liquidity than cash.
Tesla’s 10-K report confirmed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Tesla has invested $1.5 billion in the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. “We invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term. Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt,” the company said in the report. However, Musk had warned users to not spend all their life savings on cryptocurrency in a separate video.
While Gates only wants rich people like Musk to invest in Bitcoin, the latter advised people to not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency. “People should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency, to be clear – that’s unwise,” Musk said. “There’s a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth, and it’s like which one’s it going to be? Maybe it’ll be multiple. It should be considered speculation at this point. So don’t go too far with the crypto speculation front,” Musk added.
Bitcoin falls after concerns expressed by Musk, Gates and Yellen
Angela Lang/CNET
Bitcoin reached the milestone of a $1 trillion market cap last week. It appears, however, that a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, some words of caution from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and comments from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are making its value drop fast.
The popular cryptocurrency fell to slightly over $47,000 on Tuesday, after breaking the $58,000 mark Sunday afternoon. Musk tweeted Saturday that “BTC & ETH do seem high lol,” referring to Bitcoin and the digital coin Ethereum. Musk’s tweet was part of a reply to a tweet from Peter Schiff, chief market strategist for brokerage firm Euro Pacific Capital, about the value of Bitcoin versus gold-backed currency.
That said, BTC & ETH do seem high lol — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2021
In an interview with Bloomberg, Gates gave his thoughts on Bitcoin and the idea that it can be affected so dramatically by a tweet from Musk.
“I’m not bullish on Bitcoin” he said. “If you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.”
Bill Gates is not bullish on Bitcoin: “If you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out,” he tells @emilychangtv https://t.co/V7fmKSw0d1 pic.twitter.com/SDVXGddATB — Bloomberg Technology (@technology) February 23, 2021
Gates also expressed concern about Bitcoin’s massive use of energy, similar to a point Yellen made during the DealBook conference on Monday. She remarked about how the amount of energy used for the transactions is “staggering.”
“I don’t think that Bitcoin … is widely used as a transaction mechanism,” she said, according to CNBC. “To the extent it is used I fear it’s often for illicit finance. It’s an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions, and the amount of energy that’s consumed in processing those transactions is staggering.”
Bitcoin and other crypto coins such as Dogecoin require a lot of computing power in order for people to conduct transactions. These heavy computer calculations, also known as mining, need a huge amount of power – more than the country of Argentina.
For most of 2020, Bitcoin rallied from its low of just shy of $5,000 in April to jump past $29,000 by the end of the year.