“I would have liked to buy bitcoin at 100 dollars! » Rest assured, Mr Rubenstein ! We are all there. Apart from a few of our readers who had the luck, the presence of mind, the intuition or the courage to buy some more than 10 years ago, for the bulk of the troops, it is still the same regret. Even the richest people on the planet are not spared from the phenomenon. Today it’s David Rubenstein who confesses to having missed the boat and who now has red lasers in his eyes. Present at the beginning of the week on American television, he declared his love for Bitcoin and promises him a Bright future. Selected pieces !
The Carlyle Group founder’s about-face in just a few months
While he tended, like many old-world financiers, to make fun of bitcoin and cryptos, David Rubenstein is not laughing anymore. This is also how he started his television intervention at Bloomberg Television, recalling that theestablishment of finance has just become aware of the value proposition and the importance of the phenomenon. Because for him, see BlackRock do a ETF request is definitely a game changer and prove that “Bitcoin is here for a while”.
The journalist suddenly asks him if he has become a Bitcoin lawyer? Embarrassed laughter from David Rubenstein, and immediate response in the form of regret:
“ No, but I wish I had bought one for $100 when Mike Novogratz started doing it, because he made a lot of money. »
General laughter on set, and the journalist repeating that we would all have liked to buy some at that price, All on Bloomberg at prime time. Obviously, things have changed.
David Rubenstein is convinced: Bitcoin is not just a temporary phenomenon
The next question, from this same reporter, is whether he thinks BlackRock is there for the value proposition or just to make money because people are interested in Bitcoin. Carlyle’s co-founder will then explain that he perceives a great skepticism at the house of US Democrats in Congress as well as the SEC. He adds that the bankruptcy of FTX has necessarily done much trouble like cryptos, but that it is necessary to move away from the United States to become aware of the phenomenon:
“Around the world, many people want to be able to do business with a currency over which their government has no power and with which they can move freely. This is why I believe Bitcoin is here to stay. »
Regarding the idea that Bitcoin could be a means of storing value or fighting inflation, David Rubenstein is more measured. No ! For him, the strong point of this crypto, and he will say it again, is his ability to to transfer value way secure And outside the scope of state supervision :
“There is huge interest around the world in something that you can transfer without the government knowing about it and keep it private. You can say people shouldn’t do it, but that won’t stop them from doing it. »
Finally, how does he see the immediate future knowing that SEC’s Gary Gensler Opposed to Cryptos? For him, many people in government know that he will not be the boss of the SEC forever., and that it will be enough to wait until it is no longer there to move forward. We recognize there the pragmatic side of an old Wall Street backpacker. Besides, some predict already that things could go a little faster than expected.