Bill Gates: Cryptos, NFTs fully based on greater fool theory
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Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, believes cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are fully based on the greater fool theory, which suggests that prices of overvalued assets will keep rising because there are enough speculators willing to pay.
Cryptos and NFTs are "100% based on the greater fool theory," Gates told TechCrunch at an event Wednesday. “Somebody’s going to pay more for it than I do.”
In connection with NFTs, or digital representations of real-world objects, Gates facetiously added that “expensive digital images of monkeys” would improve the world. It seemed that he was referring specifically to the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, which has been falling in price in recent days amid a risk-off environment for riskier assets.
Gates also emphasized that he is not involved in “any of those things.” Likewise, Warren Buffett, famously known as the Oracle of Omaha, said "if you offered me all the world's bitcoin (BTC-USD) for $25, I wouldn't take it," according to his remarks at Berkshire Hathaway's 2022 shareholder meeting.
Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) is down around 65% from its all-time high of $67.9K in November 2021. Over the past 24 hours, though, the largest token by market cap has erased losses from earlier and whipsawed back to positive territory, recently changing hands at $21.8K. The exceptionally volatile session comes as the Federal Reserve hikes its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points, the biggest increase since 1994.
On the flip side, MicroStrategy (MSTR) CEO Michael Saylor said earlier that he can't come up with a better investment idea than bitcoin.