The American investor and Co-Founder of Soros Fund Management – Jim Rogers – said he regrets not buying bitcoin more than a decade ago when its USD valuation stood between $1 and $5. Interestingly, in 2020 he argued that investing in cryptocurrencies is basically gambling, predicting that BTC’s price will sooner or later fall to zero.
Optimism About Bitcoin and Not CBDCs
In a recent interview for the Economic Times, Jim Rogers envisioned that the future financial system will have “serious problems” sometime in the next ten years. As such, he vowed to purchase gold and silver once he saw them trading at sensible prices.
The investor also touched upon bitcoin, which according to many experts, could serve as an inflation hedge and an appropriate investment tool similar to precious metals. While Rogers admitted that he doesn’t own any BTC, he regretted not accumulating some portions years back when the asset was worth $1.
Rogers also forecasted that the cryptocurrency could play a vital role in the future monetary network and bashed central bank digital currencies. CBDCs will have an entirely different purpose and will be used by central banks and governments to monitor people’s transactions, he noted:
“So I have optimism about the future of crypto money but not government crypto money… Governments do not like competition; they like to keep their monopoly.”
Not so Supportive in the Past
It is worth noting that Rogers’ previous stance on bitcoin was not that positive. Nearly two years ago, he suggested that distributing wealth into the crypto market is “just gambling,” while BTC is overvalued and will eventually disappear:
“Cryptocurrencies didn’t even exist a few years ago, but in the blink of an eye, they became 100 and 1,000 times more valuable. This is a clear bubble, and I don’t know the right price.”
His negative opinion matched the one from November 2017 when he said that bitcoin “looks and smells like all the bubbles I have seen throughout history.”
Shifting from the crypto critics’ corner to the proponents’ one happens quite frequently in the industry. A good example is the billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban. In the past, he claimed that bitcoin has less real-life usage than a banana, while recently, he has turned into a keen supporter. Last year, he described it as a financial religion and a better investment tool than gold.
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary also fits this bill. In 2019, the Canadian called bitcoin a “useless currency” and “garbage.” Last year, though, he made a U-turn investing 3% of its portfolio into it. In April, he opined that BTC has emerged as a store of value like gold, and its valuation will never go to zero.
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