Billionaire David Rubenstein on Why He Changed His Mind About Cryptocurrency
David Rubenstein, the founder of Carlyle Group, one of the largest investment firms managing over $300 billion, says he was sceptical of crypto but now believes that "the genie is out of the bottle" and the crypto industry is not "going to go away anytime soon."
In a recent
interview with Colossus, David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group, one of
the largest private equity firms in the world, has shared why he changed his
mind about crypto in a recent interview.
Rubenstein
co-founded the Carlyle Group in 1987. Since then, the company has grown into a
firm managing $301 billion from 26 offices around the world. Among many
credentials, Rubenstein is chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a
trustee of the Brookings Institution and the World Economic Forum; and a
recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.
"I was
sceptical of crypto in the beginning because I figured there was nothing
underlying this," he began, elaborating:
'But it’s
clear to me now that many younger people don’t think that there’s much
underlying the dollar or the euro or other currencies.'
"They
think, ‘I really can’t get gold for my dollar anymore,'" he added.
So maybe the
government’s promise to make it valuable isn’t there when you have so much
money you’re borrowing and you’re inflating your way out of the value of the
currency, he continued.
Rubenstein
further added,
So I think
many people like the fact that it’s private. You can’t really know how much
somebody owns. They like to be able to transfer it around the world.
Furthermore, the Carlyle Group co-founder mentioned the Russia-Ukraine war. He pointed out the benefits of having crypto.
In such circumstances, he opined: "If
you’re in Ukraine or Russia and you want to have some assets, and your country
has got lots of challenges,
'Having some
cryptocurrency probably makes you feel better that you can have something that
isn't under the control of the government and isn't dependent on the bank
opening its doors to you.'
Rubenstein
further noted that another factor drawing people to crypto is investors' seeing
other people making money in the sector. He said,
"They
tend to go where people have made money."
As for his
own investments, he admitted: "I have not bought cryptocurrencies, but I
have bought companies that service the industry because I think the genie is
out of the bottle." Rubenstein concluded:
'I don’t
think the industry’s going to go away anytime soon.'
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