In a recent interview a few weeks ago, the American businessman and one of the wealthiest people in the world, Warren Buffet, made the controversial statement that even if he were allowed to buy all the bitcoin in the world for $25 only, he wouldn’t. He said he would comfortably invest in farmland and real estate for the future rather than bitcoin. These two will produce rent and food, respectively, unlike Bitcoin. Why would a person in business, a risk-taker, and a visionary say that? What impact did this have on the crypto population and its price? We ask ourselves such questions as we engage every day with crypto. Hoping to one day be like the guys talking it down or, in one way or the other, uttering or writing controversial statements that seem to be affecting digital currencies. Let us look at some of the prominent names in the world impacting the growth of cryptocurrency in one way or another.
Let’s start with the most striking of them all, Elon Musk. He is currently the wealthiest man in the world, and just a few weeks ago, he added Twitter to his assets. He is flamboyant, a genius, and a Twitter. He is suddenly one of the most active users of the social media giant he bought. He is known to be affluent and talks about matters from politics to business to digital assets. Elon has impacted and continues to do so even today on cryptocurrency. In February 2022, he announced that Tesla, his company, had bought bitcoin worth $1.5 billion, and this skyrocketed the Bitcoin price. In another tweet, he wrote, “Dodge coin is the peoples crypto”. It led to the rise of Dogecoin prices by 50% in a day. In another tweet, he announced that Tesla would accept payments using Dogecoin, which saw the coin rise by 43% in value within hours after the announcement. Bitcoin had its highest price this year at the end of February and almost the whole of March at $47,000, and this impact can be credited to this billionaire’s twitting.
Professional basketball millionaire Steph Curry has had almost a similar impact, but on the other arm of crypto, NFTs. NFTs, are digital assets stored in the blockchain and can be traded for good money. The era of the Bored Ape NFT hit a while ago, and almost everyone who is everyone rushed to get their hands on one. He bought an NFT from the Bored Ape Collection, and the prices doubled within a month. Curry bought the Ape for 55 ether which accumulated to $180,000.After he went public with it and updated his social media profile with the Ape, the prices skyrocketed as more and more people wanted the Apes. Bill Gates, a billionaire and the third richest man in the world, started with a backlash in 2018. He was showing his concerns about the authenticity and the safety of investing in Bitcoin. He stated that this wasn’t one of the safest ways of investing. Later in 2021, I was asked about the growth of digital currencies and how they saw them by then. This time he was lenient and went with the neutral line, stating that he didn’t own any Bitcoin and wasn’t about to, but his views on cryptocurrency remained neutral. As a crypto adopter and someone who these people influence in life, their views matter when deciding whether to join or not. If Elon is your mentor and says Bitcoin is good or bad, that will affect your choices, and so will the rest. Let’s research and, if possible, invest based on our reasoning and findings. Cryptocurrency is the next step in the evolution of the monetary system, and it’s here to stay, be wise and cautious.
