The popular public figure Jordan Belfort (better known as “The Wolf of Wall Street”) advised investors to look at bitcoin as a long-term investment. In his view, those who hold the asset for over 36 months will most probably make some profits.
Belfort’s Crypto Guidance
Jordan Belfort – the infamous stock broker whose story inspired Martin Scorsese’s film “The Wolf of Wall Street” – has not always been kind to the primary cryptocurrency. In 2018, he opined that bitcoin is based on the Great Fools Theory, and investors should get out of its ecosystem before losing all their money.
Amidst the bull run in the spring of 2021, though, Belfort totally changed his stance and predicted that the asset could reach $100,000 by the end of the year.
He doubled down on his support during his most recent interview for Yahoo Finance. He praised its limited supply of 21 million coins ever to exist, claiming that as inflation keeps rising, bitcoin will “start to trade more like a store of value and less like a growth stock.”
“The Wolf of Wall Street” also thinks the leading digital asset could be an appropriate investment tool as long as people have “diamond hands” and do not sell it for a period of 3-5 years (even though price fluctuations will imminently occur):
“If you take a three or maybe five-year horizon, I would be shocked if you didn’t make money because the underlying fundamentals of bitcoin are really strong.”
Subsequently, the American opined that bitcoin is still in its early days, which is why it is normal to correlate with the NASDAQ and tech stocks and not trade as a hedge against inflation (similar to gold).
“There is no real institutional ownership in bitcoin, for instance, you don’t have a teachers pension fund owning bitcoin for a ten-year hedge, it’s not like that yet,” he added.
Jordan Belfort, Source: BBC
The Dangers of the Crypto Industry
Apart from bitcoin, Belfort gave his two cents on how people should protect themselves from cryptocurrency scams. Compared to traditional finance, the digital asset sector lacks comprehensive rules, which explains why sometimes “people are getting slaughtered.”
“In crypto, you can go out and raise money, but there is no disclosure, and every time there is no disclosure, it always ends badly,” he stated.
He advised investors to beware when dealing with a certain cryptocurrency project and get familiar with its executive team. Belfort believes that a protocol with unknown owners should be considered a huge concern.
Lastly, he warned people to check the utility of the projects they want to invest in. If the idea behind a particular enterprise works better from a centralized server, “I would probably not get involved,” he said.