Billionaire Investor Wishes He Bought Bitcoin Early On, Here’s Why

As Bitcoin continues to enjoy more mass adoption, many have regretted their decision not to get in earlier on the flagship cryptocurrency. Co-founder of private investment firm The Carlyle Group David Rubenstein joins this long list of individuals as he wishes he had bought BTC early on. 

Speaking on Bloomberg Television on August 8, Rubenstein said he wished he had bought Bitcoin when one BTC was worth $100. The statement stems from the fact that the billionaire believes BTC is here to stay, following “enormous interest” in the cryptocurrency.  

He explained that Bitcoin’s decentralization is key to this interest as people want a form of money that governments can’t control.

According to him:

There’s enormous interest around the world, and to be able to have something you can transfer without having the government knowing about it, and keep it private. You can say people shouldn’t do that, but that’s not going to stop people from doing it.

Rubenstein also noted that people who once mocked BTC and other cryptocurrencies might begin to have second thoughts following BlackRock’s application for a Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

“What’s happened is people made fun of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but now the establishment, Larry Fink at BlackRock, is now saying they’re going to have an ETF if approved by the government in bitcoin,” Rubenstein told Bloomberg. “So you’re saying wait a second, the mighty BlackRock is willing to have an ETF in bitcoin, maybe bitcoin is going to be around for a while.”

The billionaire investor’s sentiments echo that of Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, who mentioned, during an interview on Bloomberg TV with David Rubenstein, that BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink’s change of heart was the “most important thing that happened this year in Bitcoin.”

“He [Larry Fink] got ‘orange-pilled. Larry was a nonbeliever. Now he says, ‘Hey, this is going to be a global currency.’ People around the world all trust it,” he said.

Larry, who had once referred to BTC as “an index of money laundering,” said in a July 5 interview with Fox Business that Bitcoin could revolutionize the financial industry as it could be used as a hedge against inflation instead of traditional gold. 

There is no denying the influence that BlackRock and its CEO Larry Fink could have on BTC adoption, especially among institutional investors. BlackRock is currently the largest asset manager with over $9.1 trillion in assets under management (AuM). 

With such a large clientele base, the market could see more individual investors, companies, governments, and foundations invest in Bitcoin through BlackRock (when their spot Bitcoin ETF gets approved by the SEC). 

Meanwhile, Larry Fink is a prominent figure on Wall Street and one who boasts tremendous influence in the financial world, and he will likely carry this influence into crypto.