Bitcoin may pay out more than gold, says billionaire investor

“If the gold bet works, the Bitcoin bet will probably work better.”

American billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller has changed course on Bitcoin, saying it has the potential to store value for future generations.

Speaking on CNBC today, Druckenmiller said that although he was still more heavily invested in gold than crypto, he had purchased at least some Bitcoin (BTC). He did not specify how much.

“Bitcoin could be an asset class that has a lot of attraction as a store of value to both millennials and the new West Coast money — and, as you know, they got a lot of it,” said the billionaire. “It’s been around for 13 years and with each passing day it picks up more of its stabilization as a brand.”

To be fair, Bitcoin’s white paper came out on Halloween 2008, and its genesis block was mined at the beginning of 2009. But Druckenmiller is new to the crypto space, so there is no need to attack him for his math. He continued to say he is more invested in gold than BTC:

“I own many many more times gold than I own Bitcoin. But frankly if the gold bet works, the Bitcoin bet will probably work better because it’s thinner, more illiquid and has a lot more beta to it.”

As the former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital, Druckenmiller has a net worth of roughly $4.4 billion. His recent comments represent a change in the billionaire’s position on crypto. Though he invested in stablecoin project Basis in 2018, the investor claimed last year that BTC could never be a medium of exchange, given its volatility.

“I don’t think I’m a neanderthal, which is what I’ve been called when I’ve said I didn’t want to own Bitcoin,” he said at the time.

Druckenmiller has previously put forward gold as a safe haven asset to protect investors from fiat exposure, with countries like China seemingly eager to challenge the hegemony of the U.S. dollar.