- American businessman Carl Icahn has expressed interest in virtual currencies and hinted at investing more than $1.5 billion in the industry.
- Although optimistic about Bitcoin, the billionaire prefers Ethereum based on its underlying blockchain.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Carl Icahn has discussed the potential of cryptocurrencies. The 85-year-old has revealed that he sees growth in the industry and has plans to get into it in a big way. He is especially optimistic about Bitcoin and Ethereum. The founder hinted at investing up to $1.5 billion through his enterprise.
Icahn is however wary of all projects, in fact, he warns that most cryptocurrencies will not survive. He further noted that cryptocurrencies are not here to stay in one way or form. He stated:
I’m looking at the whole business to study how I may get involved in it with Icahn Enterprises in a relatively big way. I do think that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets are here to stay in one form or the other. A big way for us could be a billion dollars or something like $1.5 billion but that would be a sort of big way,
Carl Icahn likens Ethereum
The billionaire was also full of praise for Ethereum. It is no surprise that he thought that the second-largest cryptocurrency can be both a store of value and a payment system. To him, Bitcoin can only be a store of value.
In recent weeks, Ethereum has received a lot of attention ahead of its Ethereum 2.0 release. Its underlying technology has made it one of the largest ecosystems all while remaining nearly as good as a store of value as Bitcoin. With the launch of Ethereum 2.0, it is poised to make its case even greater with cheap transactions and better scaling.
His comments come against the backdrop of high profile individuals turning against Bitcoin for its energy consumption. Triggered by Elon Musk when Tesla halted Bitcoin payments and aggravated by China’s move to crackdown on Bitcoin mining, Bitcoin has suffered a drop of more than 40 percent in recent weeks.
The recent purge has affected the entire market seeing a majority of top coins lose more than 30 percent of their value. Ethereum which set an ATH of $4,300 a few weeks ago, has dropped to find support at the $2,500 region. Most market observers are confident that prices will pick up sooner or later, making this an opportunity to reaccumulate.
In the near future, some high profile crypto advocates are warning that Ethereum could end up flipping Bitcoin. However, this is still a long way with Bitcoin enjoying more than double the Ethereum market cap.
