Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson — who made billions and billions of dollars by correctly predicting the 2008-2009 housing crash in what is widely known as "the greatest trade ever" — said in an interview published Sunday that cryptocurrency will "eventually prove to be useless."
Here are Paulson's full crypto-related comments, which I'm sure aren't controversial at all.
Bloomberg Wealth: "What about cryptocurrencies? Are you a believer?"
Paulson: "No, I'm not. And I would say that cryptocurrencies are a bubble. I would describe them as a limited supply of nothing. So to the extent there's more demand than the limited supply, the price would go up. But to the extent the demand falls, then the price would go down. There's no intrinsic value to any of the cryptocurrencies except that there's a limited amount. Cryptocurrencies, regardless of where they're trading today, will eventually prove to be worthless. Once the exuberance wears off, or liquidity dries up, they will go to zero. I wouldn't recommend anyone invest in cryptocurrencies."
Bloomberg Wealth: "Based on what you've just said, why not put a big short of some type on cryptocurrencies?"
Paulson: "The reason we shorted subprime in size was because it was asymmetrical — shorting a bond at par that has a limited duration that trades at a 1% spread of Treasuries. So you can't lose more than the spread in the duration. In crypto, there's unlimited downside. So even though I could be right over the long term, in the short term, I'd be wiped out. In the case of Bitcoin, it went from $5,000 to $45,000. It's just too volatile to short."
I mean, Paulson did make $4 BILLION IN ONE YEAR off the 2008 housing market crash, so, he must know what he's talking about... Right?
Later in the interview, Paulson was asked "how [somebody] should invest $100,000," and it should be no surprise his answer had nothing to do with crypto.
"I always say the best investment for an average individual is to buy their own home," Paulson said. "The longer you wait, the more the house is going to appreciate and the greater return you'll have on your equity investment."
Go ahead and send this article to your crypto-crazy friends and get into a nice argument, on me.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
