At an event on Tuesday, Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates denounced cryptocurrency initiatives like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as shams based on the “greater fool theory,” renewing previous criticisms of digital assets. While speaking at a TechCrunch event in Berkeley, California, Bill Gates sarcastically stated that he is neither long nor short on the asset class. “Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely,” Bill Gates on economic turbulence, crypto and whether we can still avoid climate disaster https://t.co/M1g6Blzrof by @etherington — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 14, 2022 Bill Gates Criticized Cryptocurrency Gates has previously criticized cryptocurrency, bashing with Elon Musk last year about whether Bitcoin is too risky for regular investors and whether mining coins is harmful to the environment. Higher-than-expected US inflation and the suspension of withdrawals by the lending platform Celsius fueled a larger crypto selloff this week. Popular NFT collections are also being hit hard, including the celebrity-favored Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). The global cryptocurrency market peaked in November 2021 at $2.9 trillion, but it has struggled this year. In the previous two months, it has lost $1 trillion in value as investors fled riskier assets in the face of rising prices and fears that central bank interest rate hikes could stifle growth. Gates Defends Digital Ba...
