Bitcoin billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya sees BTC as insurance against central bank policy

Chamath Palihapitiya has become one of the most prominent investors in recent years through the use of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).

Among other things, he made headlines when he brought Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to the public through a SPAC. Palihapitiya is not only a pioneer in the field of venture investments, but also a big fan of Bitcoin.

Together with a few partners, he is said to have owned 5% of all BTCs in circulation in 2012, which means they probably owned about 300,000 coins. No comments have been made about what happened to these BTCs, and it is unclear whether the Bitcoin Investor review are part of his personal property or that of his huge venture fund Social Capital. In a new interview with CNBC, the BTC billionaire now talks about the asset and explains why, in his view, it makes sense to invest.

Why Bitcoin is a type of insurance policy

In summary, Chamath Palihapitiya explains in the CNBC interview that he considers Bitcoin a kind of insurance policy against irresponsible central banks and governments. This opinion reflects the opinion of many Bitcoin maximalists and crypto fans:

I think of [Bitcoin] as the insurance policy that allows me to sleep peacefully at night in case the world’s central banks and governments step on a landmine.

On CNBC’s „Squawk Box“, the investor, who was one of Mark Zuckerberg’s earliest employees, notes that Bitcoin is not meant to be traded in his opinion. Instead, he says that BTC is an asset backed by a set of beliefs and foundations that are literally „the reverse of how the world’s financial infrastructure works. Fittingly, Palihapitiya has stated many times in recent months that Bitcoin makes sense now more than ever.

In an earlier interview with the well-known Anthony Pompliano, who also used to work at Facebook and is now a dedicated Bitcoin investor, Palihapitiya said that the asset could reach millions of dollars in value due to macro trends. He shares the view that the economy has reached a point where extreme deflation or inflation could occur, which would increase BTC’s value proposition.

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Not interested in DeFi

While Palihapitiya holds large pieces on Bitcoin, the billionaire does not pursue the DeFi range apparently particularly intensively.

To the question of the Blockchain journalist Laura Shin, whether he „observes, what goes on in DeFi“, the investor answered plumply:

I do not even know what that is.

These 13 listed companies have Bitcoin on their balance sheet.

In recent months, MicroStrategy has thrilled the Bitcoin Up world by putting more than $425 million worth of bitcoin on its balance sheet. On this website, you can follow which listed companies have bitcoin (BTC) on their balance sheet.

After MicroStrategy’s move, everyone began to speculate which company would take the next step. The name of Square of CEO Jack Dorsey was often mentioned. This eventually turned out to be true, because this week the company stepped into bitcoin with $50 million.

Bitcoin on the balance sheet of 13 companies.

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Listed companies and bitcoin: a trend is born
Although, in retrospect, it makes sense for companies to use bitcoin as a reserve currency, MicroStrategy’s move came as a surprise to many bitcoiners. A bitcoin standard would mainly be inspired by mass adoption by consumers, institutional investors and even central banks.

The fact that companies would interfere in the violence in this way was, for one reason or another, never much mentioned. Now the time has come and companies seem to be following each other in quick succession. A little less than two months after MicroStrategy, Square came second with an investment of $50 million.

Meanwhile, BitcoinTreasuries has compiled a list of 13 companies that have bitcoin on its balance sheet. These are only listed companies.

Why has only listed companies been chosen?
The choice for listed companies was made for the simple reason that these companies can easily be verified. After all, these companies are obliged to disclose their financial documents.

Quite soon after MicroStrategy’s move, the Canadian restaurant chain Tahinis announced that they had also switched to a bitcoin standard. But the company’s books are not public and that makes it difficult to check everything. So there are probably a lot more companies outside the list that use bitcoin as a spare asset.

We cannot wait to see how the coming months will develop. In any case, the news is not going to be much more bullish than this.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)