David Rubenstein – an American billionaire and Co-Founder of The Carlyle Group – believes crypto’s decline is a normal event since all markets have been down recently. He predicted that people will not abandon the concept behind the asset class only because of the adverse events in the past few weeks.
Staying on the Pro-Crypto Side
Bitcoin has taken a major hit in the past few days. The rising global inflation, the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the energy crisis, among other factors, had kept the asset around the $30,000 price level for nearly a month.
However, earlier this week, its USD valuation plunged even more significantly after the crypto lender Celsius paused withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts, thus creating panic in the sector. Moreover, the record-setting US inflation numbers and the Fed’s promise to hike the interest rates further affected the market as well.
And while many experts started envisioning a dark future for BTC, the American billionaire David Rubenstein is not among them.
In a recent interview for Bloomberg, he argued that its price will continue to fluctuate, but the asset will not “disappear.” Moreover, Rubenstein noted its progress in the past decade, claiming that a USD valuation of over $20,000 is a significant achievement considering that some investors purchased it for less than a dollar years ago:
“So sure, if you’ve bought it at $60,000, you’ve lost a lot of money, and I’m not saying these are great investments, but I think these are investments that are not going to go away. I don’t think the whole crypto economy is going to collapse.”
The businessman also argued that crypto’s decline is not surprising since the global economy is currently not in its best condition and traditional financial markets are down, too. In his view, people will keep their trust in blockchain technology and the concept behind digital assets despite the negative trend.
Genie is Out of the Bottle
In April this year, Rubenstein (who is also a former US government official) praised bitcoin for its ability to grant financial freedom to individuals:
“So I think many people like the fact that it’s private. You can’t really know how much somebody owns. They like to be able to transfer around the world. Having some cryptocurrency probably enables you to feel better that you can have something that’s outside of the government’s control, and it’s not dependent on the bank opening up its doors to you.”
He also opined that the cryptocurrency sector has developed to such a level that “the genie is out of the bottle,” and its progress would be hard to be ceased.
The American admitted he had not distributed portions of his wealth into digital assets. However, he has invested in companies that are part of the industry.
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