Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Bill Gates Issues Bitcoin Warning


Sat 27 Feb 2021 | 10:16 AM
Taarek Refaat

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has warned investors with less money than Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, to be wary of bitcoin.

Musk used pro-bitcoin tweets before his company, Tesla, added $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, pushing the cryptocurrency higher.

"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," Gates told Bloomberg.

"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 added.

Gates said he had not personally invested in Bitcoin, adding that he would prefer to invest in production.

"I do not choose my investments based on whether they would appreciate in value or not," he pointed out.

Bitcoin's intangible currency is known for its extreme volatility, jumping to nearly $60,000 last week after collapsing below $4,000 in March 2020.

It rebounded over the summer and started its latest bullish jump in October, surpassing its 2017 high in December as big institutions showed interest in digital currencies.

Last week, the combined value of 18.6 million Bitcoins reached $1 trillion, as the cryptocurrency obsession resurfaces.

Although the bitcoin price has dropped by nearly 20% over the past week, many in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community are still bullish about digital mining. Meantime, bitcoin rose 3.92% to $47,158.58 on Saturday.