A year-old warning from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates concerning Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has resurfaced.
What Happened: In an interview with Bloomberg in 2021, Gates had said that he wasn’t “bullish on Bitcoin” and cautioned people against investing in the cryptocurrency unless they had as much money as 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. 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,” said Gates, at the time.
“If you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out,” he added.
Why It Matters: Gates’ comments from last year appear to be going viral once again just as U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to establish the country’s “first-ever” federal digital asset strategy.
The order does not name any new regulations but is instead focused on introducing measures to accelerate how fast the government can study cryptocurrency, protect investors, prevent illicit finance, and create a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Industry watchers largely believe that the executive order was a bullish event for the crypto market that reacted favorably in the hours that followed.
Bitcoin surged 8% to $42,465 on Wednesday. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) hit an intra-day high of $2,761 and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) traded as high as $0.12.
Photo: Courtesy of World Economic Forum via Flickr
