“Of course, expensive digital monkey images will improve the world.” A stab. Bill Gates thus liquidates the NFT market (non fungible token, non fungible tokens), and is said to be convinced that their entire market is based on the theory of “greater fool“. That is: only a fool could buy them and the only way he can make money with them is to find someone willing to put even more money in them: an even more stupid one. Gates’ reference is to digital works of art Bored Ape Yatch Club , the bored monkeys that hit record valuations last year, some in the tens of millions of dollars.
Gates: “I’m not involved in the bitcoin market”
It is the first time that the founder of Microsoft exposes himself on the subject. He did it during a Tech Crunch event, one of the most followed innovation sites in the world, during a panel on technology and climate change. After the ironic lunge, however, Gates devoted 30 seconds of his speech to a brief analysis of the market cryptocurrencies and of the whole world of digital assets based on blockchain technology: “I am used to recognizing as productive classes companies such as agricultural ones, or that in general produce goods”. There is true value there. While NFTs “are 100% based on the ‘greater fool’ theory. And on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, he adds:” I am not involved in their market in any way, neither as an investor in the short or long term. “Without want to add more.
Are NFTs works of art?
The approach of NFT to the art market has now become a standard. Italian museums have also begun to digitize some of their masterpieces to sell them on the market as NFT. Auctions of digital artwork are held weekly, and up until last year at least, they had achieved stellar ratings. Then a sudden collapse in 2022, thanks to the economic crisis and the surge in inflation, a bit like the entire digital asset sector, from bitcoin to stablecoins.
The conviction of those who bought non-fungible tokens of works of art, or their digital translation accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and uniqueness, is that over time their price would increase, just as historically the price of works of art has increased. But, unlike the Nft, the works of art I am a physical object, visible, usable. Nft are a code, a file, however original and not duplicable. And, according to Gates, the run-up to buy them is nothing more than a race between madmen, in the hope that there are always more of them.
The prediction for 2021: “Many will get hurt”
This isn’t the first time Gates has publicly mocked the world of crypto assets. In 2018 he said blockchain-based currencies are hurting people “quite obviously”. In 2015 he said bitcoin could not be useful as a currency in poor countries due to its volatility.
More recently, in 2021, Gates warned retail investors investing in cryptocurrencies that they could lose all the money they invested. In retrospect, it could be said that Gates’ prediction turned out to be spot on. Last year bitcoin prices had reached record highs and the price had touched i 60 thousand dollars. Now crypto travels around $ 21,000, about a third of its value compared to records, following a series of collapses in the last 72 hours, and on the forums there are many people who complain of huge losses. Everything is easy, in hindsight. But the volatility of this market is a fact. Making it an investment class is a gamble.