Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones is expanding on his new entry into the Bitcoin (BTC) space.
In a new interview on CNBC, Tudor says the coronavirus and rapidly increasing money printing forced him to take a fresh look at his options.
“Covid happened and the great monetary inflation happened, and that made me begin to think about how do you want to be positioned in your portfolio going forward. So that’s really what tripped my interest in Bitcoin.
According to Tudor, one of Bitcoin’s biggest hurdles is a lack of trust in the young digital currency.
“When I think about store of value, and I think of it four ways – purchasing power, trustworthiness, liquidity and portability. When it comes to trustworthiness, Bitcoin is 11 years old. There’s very little trust in it. We’re watching the birthing of a store of value. And whether that succeeds or not, only time will tell. What I do know is that every day that goes by and Bitcoin survives, the trust in it goes up.”
In the current global macro environment, Tudor says cash is a losing proposition.
“If you take cash, on the other hand, and you think about it from a purchasing power standpoint – if you own cash in the world today, you know your central bank has an avowed goal of depreciating its value 2% per year. So you have, in essence, a wasting asset in your hands.”
Reports on exactly how Tudor is investing in Bitcoin have varied, with some outlets reporting he’s investing in Bitcoin futures and others saying he’s buying the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. In the interview, Tudor adds a bit of clarity to the situation, saying he now has close to 2% of his assets in BTC.
“So Bitcoin, I think it’s a great speculation. I’ve got just over 1% of my assets in Bitcoin, maybe it’s almost 2%. That seems like the right number right now. For me, it’s not the great cure for all the monetary ills, et cetera.”