Key Takeaways:
- Activist investor Carl Icahn has set sight on cryptocurrencies, says he could invest north of $1bn
- The 83-year old investor has changed his previous tune from 2018 when he shunned bitcoin
New To Cryptos But Has High Expectations For This New Industry
Billionaire and activist investor, Icahn, is now exploring the cryptocurrency industry. He said he wants to get involved “in a relatively big way”. Carl Icahn is the founder of Icahn Enterprises. Icahn Exterprises is a conglomerate holding company that seeks to invest in or buy out lucrative businesses. Carl Icahn, whose net worth exceeds $22bn, recently spoke to Bloomberg, saying he has not yet purchased any cryptocurrency, but is looking to get into it.
“I don’t own cryptocurrency, but I think there could be something to it,” Carl Icahn said in the interview with Bloomberg. The activist investor mentioned that he is studying Bitcoin, Ethereum and the cryptocurrency space in order to find out if he could find attractive investments.
What did Carl Icahn Actually Say About The Crypto Industry?
“I’m looking at the whole business and how I can get involved in it with Icahn Enterprises in a relatively big way because, I think, it’s here to stay in one form or another,” Carl Icahn said. In reply to what he meant by “a relatively big way”, the billionaire and one of the most feared and influential players on Wall Street said:
“A big way for us would be a billion dollars, a billion and a half dollars, something like that. That would be sort of a big way, I guess, for us. But sometimes we go bigger than that, sometimes a lot smaller. I’m not going to say exactly.”
Mr. Icahn defended the recent crypto frenzy, saying cryptos are gaining broad following because of the looming inflation concerns in the US economy. He commented that criticism over digital assets having no real value “is a little wrong-headed”. He did say, however, that many of the cryptocurrencies are overvalued. “Much of the cryptocurrency issued today will not survive, but we believe cryptocurrency in one form or another might be here to stay.”
The current accommodative stance toward cryptos by Carl Icahn is a U-turn from his early views on the fledgling market. In a 2018 interview with CNBC, Carl Icahn called Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies “ridiculous”. “Maybe I’m too old for them,” he said then, “but I wouldn’t touch that stuff.”
Buy, sell, exchange and store Bitcoin securely. Log in to Zeply now.