Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC on Wednesday that he currently sees cryptocurrencies as a better hedge against inflation than gold.
“At the moment it would be my preferred gold over gold,” said Jones in a “Squawk Box” interview. “Clearly, crypto has a place. Obviously, it’s winning the race against gold right now.”
Jones, a bitcoin and crypto bull, also told CNBC he was very concerned about rising inflation, saying it posed a major threat to US financial markets and the recovering Covid-hit economy.
“I have single-digit cryptocurrencies in my portfolio,” said Jones, referring to the percentage of his cryptocurrency holdings.
Back in June, Jones told CNBC that Bitcoin was a great way to protect your wealth for the long term, calling the world’s largest crypto a store of wealth like gold.
Gold, as an inflation-proof investment, would generally rise with the rapid rise in consumer prices. Gold lost 8% in the past 12 months, compared to Bitcoin’s 437% one-year gain.
Often referred to as digital gold, Bitcoin was also developed as a payment system, although its adoption as money to pay for things has been slow due to the volatility of the digital coin.
Bitcoin was essentially flat earlier in the morning, rising after Jones’ crypto notes. It hit a new all-time high of over $ 66,000 on Wednesday, surpassing the April record.
Bitcoin struggled over the summer, briefly trading below $ 30,000 before rising back up ahead of the launch of the first U.S. Bitcoin-Linked Exchange Traded Fund.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF rose 4.8% in its first session on Tuesday and another 3% on Wednesday. The ETF tracks Bitcoin futures or contracts that speculate on the future price rather than the cash price.
Jones said he would rather own Bitcoin himself than the futures-linked ETF. However, he said the ETF will perform well and investors should “rest assured” that it has been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
