Key Takeaways
- Starwood Capital Group's founder and CEO, Barry Sternlicht (a US billionaire), thinks that gold is sort of worthless except in industrial use-cases.
- Sternlicht argues that the only actual selling point of the primary digital asset is as a reserve of value, and that is the principal reason he is a HODL(ER) of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- Founder of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, has disclosed that a huge amount (more than 60%) of his cryptocurrency investment is hidden in bitcoin
In an interview, Starwood Capital Group's founder and CEO, Barry Sternlicht (a US billionaire), reiterated that even though he does not come off as a proponent or BTC maximalist, and as one who always voices aloud that bitcoin has no definite purpose.
He, however, thinks that gold is sort of worthless except in industrial use-cases and argues that the only actual selling point of the primary digital asset is as a reserve of value and that is the principal reason why he is a HODL(ER) of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Sternlicht opines that, in contrast to the crude method of government-issued currencies, bitcoin as a financial tool has an already established total circulating supply of about € 21 million.
The coin has also gone a long way in putting an end to the mass printing of fiat currencies. According to him, these are part of the reasons he decided to buy and store up some.
However, Sternlicht, while revealing that he owns some amount of Ether, seems much more inclined towards bitcoin's rival Ether and believes that it has a much more differing significance than bitcoin, using the term "programmable bitcoin" to describe Ether.
The Billionaire went further to say that he has a vested attraction to the idea of blockchain technology and sees it as having the capability to turn the entire financial network around for the better.
A strong advocate of bitcoin, founder of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban is the next Billionaire in the long list of billionaire bitcoin backers and investors.
He has disclosed that a huge amount (more than 60%) of his cryptocurrency investment is hidden in bitcoin; he has 30% of investment in ETH and has allocated the remainder of his crypto investment to different altcoins such as Dogecoin.
In support of Sternlicht's opinion about gold being worthless, Mark Cuban believes that due to the limited circulating supply and algorithmic scarcity of bitcoin, it is a better alternative to gold and also that there is an upside to Ethereum when it comes to funding.
On different occasions, other notable politicians, investors, celebrities, and billionaires have alluded to the fact that some of their wealth is from the cryptocurrency market.
Topmost amongst them in the mainstream financial industry is billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones III.
He introduced the idea of safeguarding against rising inflation through the purchase of BTC and made various allocations for this.
Despite his disputed attitude on bitcoin, especially regarding depletion of energy, Tesla's chief executive officer, Elon Musk, is currently the most influential personality on the list of billionaires backing Bitcoin as the billionaire entrepreneur has attested to the fact that he owns not just Bitcoin but also Ethereum and Dogecoin.
A Republican senator, Cynthia Lummis, in June of 2021, disclosed that in 2013 when the USD value of bitcoin was $300 apiece, she bought and is now a proud owner of 5 BTCs. Cynthia recently admitted that she increased and added about $50,000 and $100,000 of digital assets to her holdings in August.
With this foregoing, do you think these Money bags are right to side bitcoin over gold? What is the future of cryptocurrency looking like right now?
