One of the most intriguing financial storylines of the past few years has been the meteoric rise – and potential cataclysmic fall – of the digital currency known as Bitcoin. Created in 2009 by an unknown software engineer named Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin has exploded several thousand percents in valuation over the last year alone, with a current exchange rate of (at the time of this writing) $4,000 for everyone bitcoin.
Though Bitcoin has certainly made some brand new multi-millionaires, not everyone is buying into the hype, namely some big-name investing experts. Here are five who haven’t taken the bait.
Jamie Dimon: CEO of JPMorgan Chase
Dimon is particularly aggressive in his criticism of Bitcoin, calling it a “fraud” that was created “out of thin air,” and even comparing it to the infamous “tulip craze” that went through the Netherlands in the seventeenth century.
But even though Dimon is convinced that the Bitcoin bubble will burst at some point, he is not entirely sure when. He even says it could go as high as $20,000, but it will eventually “blow up.”
Warren Buffet: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
The “Oracle of Omaha” himself and one of the richest men in the world admires Bitcoin’s possibilities, but doubts it has any intrinsic value itself, calling it a “mirage, basically.” He does admit that it’s an effective way of transmitting money, especially anonymously, but likens it to a more advanced version of a regular paper check. Naturally, Buffet’s value-based investing style, which focuses on long-term growth rather than short-term gains, implies that he won’t be investing in Bitcoin anytime soon.
Robert Shiller: Nobel Prize Winner and Yale University Economist
In the financial world, Shiller is as close to a prophet as they come, having correctly predicted both the 1999 dot-com burst and 2006 housing collapse. He sees the same type of environment with the development of Bitcoin. He claims that the “motivating quality” of Bitcoin is what is keeping it alive, that it gives the user a sense of “empowerment” that they’ve developed something unique. This underlying enthusiasm is the foundation for the digital currency, and believes that when those emotions die out, that Bitcoin will eventually bottom out as well.
Ben Bernanke: Federal Reserve Chairman (2006-2014)
Since Bernanke had a front row seat to the housing market collapse of 2008, he is naturally suspicious of Bitcoin, but also sees quite a bit of promise in the digital currency. In 2013, he wrote a letter to Congress stating that technologies like Bitcoin may have a role in the future, but it must develop faster, more secure, and more efficient payment systems. Two years later, Bernanke also cited some serious flaws with Bitcoin, namely, its volatility as a source of value, and its anonymity, which allows Bitcoin to be the currency of choice for underground illicit transactions such as financing terrorists, sex trafficking, and others. Though Bernanke does predict that eventually, the Bitcoin craze will run its course, he believes that the more serious threat to Bitcoin’s viability is in future government oversight that will restrict its usages.
Mark Cuban: Billionaire and Co-Founder of Broadcast.com
One of the stars of the hit show “Shark Tank” and the vocal owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban’s opinion on Bitcoin is somewhat split. On the one hand, he did release a series of tweets in June of 2017 that expressed his doubts as to the viability of Bitcoin, calling it a bubble, but two months later invested in a venture capital firm that planned to invest in a digital currency of its own. Could he be changing his mind?
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