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The majority of bitcoin billionaires are those who acquired a large amount of the asset very early on at a low cost without ever getting rid of it. If it is fair to believe that they had flair on the spot, some of them made this investment without really knowing how cryptocurrency works. This is particularly the case of the billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya – President of the Virgin Galactic space agency – who has recently shared the context of his encounter with bitcoin during an Unchained podcast. We learn how the man bought 1 million BTC and his opinion on other subjects related to the future of cryptocurrency.
An investment worth more than $ 9 billion today
Chamath Palihapitiya reported hearing about Bitcoin for the first time in 2010 througha person well known in the Bitcoin ecosystem : Wences Casares. He then explained the context in which he made his investment:
“We were actually going to Las Vegas for its 40th anniversary. And that’s when he introduced Bitcoin to me. And I remember landing three days later, and I called my family office to say: Buy a million bitcoin. This is how I started. It was $ 80 or something like that back then. And it seemed very interesting to me ”.
This investment made at short notice represents today worth more than $ 9 billion.
He then admitted that it had taken a few years to actually understand the mechanism of cryptocurrency and that he has already forgotten it recently. « I studied it… I made the decision to buy and never think about it again. And, overall, I never thought about it again ” he says. The value of his portfolio increasing over the years his managers will eventually call him out when Bitcoin cost $ 20,000 each. His reaction was as follows: “ Guys, don’t tell me, I don’t wanna know. Remove them from the balance sheet, never look at them, keep them at cost and don’t be psychologically affected by this figure. ”
Investing in Bitcoin as insurance
If the gold mine that represents its investment today does not excite M. Palihapitiya, it’s because he sees it as insurance. He said in the podcast that: « all investors should put 1% of their portfolio in bitcoin ». However, the billionaire hopes never have to use this insurance, believing that this would mean that the current financial system has collapsed.
He thinks that Bitcoin’s success will depend on a succession of many bad decisions made by governments. “If your bet on Bitcoin pays off, it will be destructive to the world. And this will have huge consequences for many people we all know and are dear to us and who were not covered by Bitcoin ” he concluded.
Although he makes him a billionaire in Bitcoin, Mr. Palihapitiya sees his investment as a bet against the ruling class in which he obviously does not trust. Even if he says he is not interested in figures, they show how much bitcoin represents a sure value of financial investment.
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In the crypto-bath since 2017, both much too late but quite soon from the point of view of my future grandchildren ????
Writer, Amateur Trader, Ethereum and NEO-compatible
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