Yesterday, during an interview with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Technology, Bill Gates explicitly stated that he is not bullish on bitcoin.
The topic they were debating was Tesla’s investment in BTC, made earlier this month, and which had already produced a return greater than the annual profits from car sales.
In reality, however, it is worth pointing out that the return on the investment has not yet produced any profits, and that these could only be produced if the purchased bitcoin are sold. However, it appears that Tesla’s investment is not aimed at short-term speculation, so that it is not realistically imaginable that it could already decide to sell its BTC.
Gates responded by saying that he is not at all worried about Tesla, although the value of bitcoin remains very volatile, but he is worried about people who, despite having little savings, get excited and invest without realizing the risks.
He added that he is not bullish on bitcoin, and advises those who do not have much money to be careful when investing in bitcoin.
The reasons why he is not bullish on bitcoin are the high energy consumption, and the use of anonymous and irreversible transactions.
However, he also added that his foundation is involved in the field of digital transactions, so from this point of view, his opinion should be considered not disinterested.
A few days ago he also revealed that he does not own any bitcoin, and that he has a largely neutral view on the project, reiterating that with his foundation he is working on making digital monetary transactions simpler and cheaper.
In other words, it seems that Gates is not interested in the financial asset bitcoin, but in digital currency technology. This probably makes him disinterested in bitcoin’s price dynamics, while he is certainly interested in the revolution that could be brought to people’s daily lives by the use of innovative technologies such as those pioneered by Bitcoin.
Gates is not known for being a financial speculator, or an investor trying to make his capital go further with mere financial investments. His position on bitcoin is therefore entirely understandable.