Bill Ackman: Crypto is Here to Stay
- Bill Ackman believes crypto can have the same impact as the internet and the telephone.
- The investor claimed cryptocurrency investments occupy less than 2% of his assets.
Billionaire hedge fund manager and investor Bill Ackman is convinced that the cryptocurrency industry will continue to exist despite the recent scare caused by the collapse of the crypto trading platform, FTX. FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, days after it ran into a liquidity problem.
The situation led many to believe that the crypto industry had come to an early end as investors quickly began to lose trust and regulators strengthened their pursuit of the sector. However, Bill’s comment will undoubtedly come as a ray of light to crypto enthusiasts.
Bill shared his belief in a Twitter thread he posted on Sunday, November 20th, stating that “crypto is here to stay.” He noted, however, that there was a need to remove fraudulent players and make the industry safer.
Bill’s comment marks a significant change in the billionaire’s attitude toward crypto. The 56-year-old confessed that he was “initially a crypto skeptic,” but all that changed “after studying some of the more interesting crypto projects.”
Bill believes that like the telephone and internet, the crypto industry could usher in a new era of technological change. The hedge fund manager claims “crypto can enable the formation of useful businesses and technologies that heretofore could not be created.”
The investor has shown his newfound enthusiasm for the crypto industry by becoming a direct investor in a couple of crypto projects. He recently called for New York authorities to ease their policies and remove possible barriers to make the city a hub for crypto activities.
The American investor, however, pointed out an area of concern in the crypto industry. He wrote,
The problem with crypto is that unethical promoters can create tokens simply to facilitate pump and dump schemes. It may in fact be that the vast majority of crypto coins are used for fraudulent purposes rather than for building legitimate businesses.
Despite the industry’s potential to aid fraud, Bill believes that with proper regulation and oversight, the crypto industry could go ahead and impact the economy and society like the internet and telephone. Sharing his thoughts on how to combat fraud in the crypto industry, According to Bill,
All legitimate participants in the crypto ecosystem should therefore be highly incentivized to expose and eliminate fraudulent actors as they greatly increase the risk of regulatory intervention that will set back the positive potential impact of crypto for generations.
Bill claims that cryptocurrency represents less than 2% of his assets. He also has an interest in Helium, and owns a stake in ORIGYN Foundation