American businessman and former cryptocurrency skeptic Carl Icahn is considering entering the cryptocurrency market in a “relatively big way” — teasing a “billion dollars, billion-and-a-half” investment.
In 2018, the activist investor called cryptocurrency “ridiculous” during an interview with CNBC, adding “maybe I’m too old for them, but I wouldn’t touch that stuff.” Icahn has also previously compared crypto to the 18th century land bubble.
But speaking to Bloomberg on May 26, he expressed a keen interest in crypto.
“I’m looking at the whole business. I’m not looking at what to buy necessarily at this time. I’m just looking at the whole business, and how I might get involved with it.”
Icahn joins other prominent financial big shots who have reconsidered their previous dismissive stance on crypto in recent months, including Oaktree Capital Group co-founder Howard Marks, MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, and Dallas Mavericks’ Mark Cuban.
Icahn Prefers Ethereum Over Bitcoin
The 85-year-old founder of Icahn Enterprises further asserted that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. He, however, warns that many cryptos issued today will not survive.
“I will say about cryptocurrencies … I don’t think there will be a lot of survivors out there trading today. I think there’s got to be some form of really feeling there’s safety and value there.”
When quizzed about his use case, the billionaire cited the Ethereum network, arguing that the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency can function as both a store of value and a payment system: “With Ethereum, it’s the underlying blockchain. So, Ethereum has two things — you can use it as a payment system, you use it as a store of value.”
In other words, Icahn believes ethereum and bitcoin are very different. For him, the bellwether cryptocurrency is “just a store of value”.
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