Thomas Peterffy – Founder and Chairman of Interactive Brokers – believes the American authorities might ban cryptocurrencies amid concerns that they facilitate illegal activities. Nonetheless, the billionaire remains a HODLer, vowing to purchase more bitcoin if its price drops to $12,000.
The current economic situation and Bitcoin
In a recent interview for Forbes, Peterffy predicted that the current financial crisis, particularly record inflation in the United States, would continue for the next few years:
“I believe inflationary pressures will continue for years, not months. This is not a short-term issue.”
To prove his grim predictions, he pointed to several factors that will keep the inflation rate at record highs: the disruption of supply chains as globalization “reverses”, a shortage of skilled workers and increasing automation. , decades of chronic budget deficit in the United States, rising interest rates. , and more.
Amidst this turbulence, he recommended investors focus on perspective publicly-traded firms as this is “a great time to do research and accumulate stocks of companies.”
Moving on to investing in cryptocurrencies, the billionaire warned that it might not be a good idea as there is a “high chance” bitcoin “will become worthless or banned.” According to him, criminals are widely using digital assets in their illicit operations, which could prompt the US government to ban the asset class.
Despite the warning, Peterffy remains a BTC HODLer. He even said he will increase his exposure if the asset’s price tumbles to $12K.
His previous thoughts
Almost a year ago, the Hungarian-born businessman admitted that he had allocated some of his wealth to digital assets. Without disclosing the coins he chose, he described a scenario where crypto becomes a dominant currency globally:
“Even I myself have put a little bit of money into crypto, because even though chances are, I think, that this is not going to be a viable market, I think that there’s a small chance that this will be a dominant currency, so you have to play the odds.”
It should also be noted that last summer his organization – Interactive Brokers – allowed cryptocurrency trading services to its clients. Peterffy explained that the reason was the growing interest in digital asset options.
He also assured that the services will offer maximum protection to investors. Interactive Brokers has over 1.6 million institutional and individual brokerage clients, managing more than $370 billion in customer equity.
