“Wolf of Wall Street” J. Belfort admits he was wrong about Bitcoin’s collapse
Former stockbroker known as the “Wolf of Wall Street” Jordan Belfort has admitted that his initial forecast of Bitcoin (BTC) going to zero was wrong.
Talking during an interview with Yahoo Finance On August 27, Belfort noted that his stance in 2017 was due to the view that the asset was a scam, while suggesting that Bitcoin had characteristics of a fraudulent project.
“At the time I really hated crypto, I stand by everything I said about crypto in 2017 except for one thing, I was wrong about Bitcoin going to zero, but I didn’t look closely enough because I said it’s a scam because it just seemed that way because everyone was hearing the signs of it,” Belfort said.
The impact of 2018 crypto winter
Furthermore, Belfort stated that after the growth of cryptocurrencies, he believed that a regulatory intervention would push the asset to zero since it was likely to pose a threat. At the same time, he explained how the crypto winter 2018 changed his mind.
“When it crashed and it went down to $3,000, it was still like a multi-billion dollar market. I’m like wait a second when things crash, they go like Terra (LUNA), that’s what happens when they go the way. That was the first thing that made me look closely. <...> “My original thesis was supreme risk that the US just wouldn’t say more like China did, and that was the real thing that drove me to be really bearish on Bitcoin,” he added.
Interestingly, the former stockbroker revealed that he came to understand Bitcoin’s qualities of a digital gold driving a change of his mind. Along these lines, Belfort, who is pushing for crypto regulation, added that with maturity, Bitcoin will likely start trading like a store of value and less like a growth stock.
Elsewhere, Belfort suggested that the growth trajectory of the crypto sector will mirror the dot-com bubble where select digital currencies will crash before rallying.
He believes that cryptocurrencies likely to stand out are those with strong governance and utility, while stressing that in the long term Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) are likely to succeed.
His stance on crypto growth echoes the suggestion of Economist and founder of HS Dent Publishing, Harry Dent. As reported by Finbold, Dent believes crypto is the “next big thing,” but the market will first experience a crash before a rally, similar to Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN ) stock rally.
Watch the full interview below:
