Bill Gates has issued a warning to the world over Elon Musk and the danger posed by banking on the value of cryptocurrencies.
He suggested the crypto market was dangerous for those who had less money than Musk, which considering he has the highest net worth of any individual on the planet is every other person in the world.
More seriously, his warning is more for those who might want to get rich by investing in cryptocurrency, but don't have the massive fortunes of men like Musk to act as a safety net in case the value of the currency drops after investment.
Musk has become a major figure in the future of cryptocurrency as his tweets on the topic can massively affect their market value.
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Per The Guardian, the value of cryptocurrency Dogecoin has soared by 5,859 percent in no small part due to being mentioned by Musk on social media.
Tesla is accepting Dogecoin as payment for their products, though Musk last year called the cryptocurrency depicting the dog from the meme a 'hustle'.
Gates was asked about the potential for Tesla boss Musk to make more money in a year from investments in Bitcoin than from selling electric cars, the thing Tesla actually does as a company.
He said: "Elon has tons of money and he's very sophisticated so I don't worry that his Bitcoin will randomly go up or down.
"I do think people get brought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare so I'm not bullish on Bitcoin.
"My thought would be if you have less money than Elon, watch out."
Since literally everyone else in the world has less money than the Tesla founder, it may be a warning worth heeding for those who have invested heavily in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the hopes that a jump in value will leave them in the money rather than out of pocket.
For instance, cryptocurrency markets crashed in January with Bitcoin losing 45 percent of its value from the high point it reached in November 2021, and the value of Bitcoin has not recovered strongly since the major drop.
Between November and January, over $1 trillion in value was wiped off the wider crypto market following the possibility of government efforts to assess the risks posed and investors deciding to sell up and move their money to something less risky.
CNN reports that Tesla holds about $2 billion worth of Bitcoin after making an initial investment of $1.5 billion into the cryptocurrency early in 2021.
Topics: Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bitcoin
Joe Harker