Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates takes a clear stance on cryptocurrency and warns buyers.
Bill Gates is one of the richest and most successful people on this planet. Although he is no longer THE richest (that is Elon Musk at the moment, as of May 2022), he has been for several years and still ranks fourth in the world with an estimated fortune of 129 billion US dollars. So when this man expresses his opinion on topics like finance, many people take notice. Now Bill Gates has taken a clear position on the long-running cryptocurrency.
Bill Gates is not a fan of cryptocurrency
It has been known for a while that the Microsoft co-founder is critical of Bitcoin, for example. For example, Gates expressed his concerns about the popular cryptocurrency in an interview with Bloomberg in February 2022. Average earners should be careful not to get too carried away by what he called “crypto frenzy.” At the time, he jokingly said that all people who had less money than Elon Musk – i.e. everyone – should be careful with bitcoins, even if he had nothing specifically against this currency.
Now Gates has been in a so-called “Ask Me Anything” round (AMA) of the Reddit forum raised the issue again.
Also interesting: Bill Gates predicted these things back in 1999
Gates advises great caution
A Reddit user addressed Bill Gates directly on the subject, the entrepreneur replied:
“I like to invest in things that have a valuable output. The value of companies is based on how they make great products. The value of crypto, on the other hand, is what another person decides someone else will pay for, so this transaction does not contribute to society like other investments.”
Bill Gates
So his criticism of crypto is that the currency does not contribute to society. Bill Gates had also commented negatively on the environmental damage of cryptocurrency; in 2021, for example, 0.5 percent of global electricity consumption was already attributable to so-called cryptomining, the verification of crypto coins by using these coins to reward the computing power provided. In fact, Gates says he doesn’t own any cryptocurrencies himself.
With the criticism he has voiced in the past, the entrepreneur hit a nerve, especially in retrospect. The Bitcoin short is currently falling rapidly; Experts assume that nothing will change in this development for the time being.