Bill Gates warns against investing in Bitcoin in resurfaced interview

A Bill Gates interview from February 2021 has resurfaced where he said he was skeptical about bitcoin, particularly because the value of the cryptocurrency could be swayed by something as simple as a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

“Elon has tons of money, and he’s very sophisticated, so I don’t worry that his Bitcoin will randomly go up or down,” Gates said. “I do think people get brought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare, so I’m not bullish on Bitcoin.”

He added, “If you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.” Gates said he’s largely concerned about the lack of regulation around the cryptocurrency. He highlighted two of the main risks associated with Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency: They’re decentralized, and they can be highly volatile.

“[Bitcoin] happens to promote anonymous transactions,” Gates said. “They’re not reversible transactions.”

Gates said that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation actually “does a lot in terms of digital currency,” but only when “you can see who is making the transaction.” He said “digital money is a good thing,” especially when it comes to funding poorer countries and getting “money out to their citizens very, very efficiently.”

Crypto experts often warn that altcoins, in their current state, are at a high risk for fraud, and that they can gain and lose value very quickly, making them deeply unreliable as investments.

“Be very careful about how much you allocate and understanding what you can tolerate,” Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and president of Bone Fide Wealth, told CNBC Make It last year. “Because if 80% of your net worth is tied to bitcoin, and it goes down 30%, that’s rough.”