Billionaire VC labels Bitcoin as the ultimate hedge

The billionaire CEO of investment firm Social Capital and the chairman of Virgin Galactic, Chamath Palihapitiya, has hailed Bitcoin as being the most uncorrelated hedge to the traditional financial system.

Speaking during an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Palihapitiya commented on renowned macro investor Paul Tudor Jones’ recent involvement in Bitcoin.

“Now you’re seeing a lot of lines of different thinking converge.” He said.

“So when we started to believe in the long-term value of Bitcoin, it was as a store of value, and it was that schmuck insurance that you kept under the mattress, and there was a small cohort of us that have believed this for like almost the last 10 years now…

“But when you have people like Paul Tudor Jones, sophisticated market participants who don’t necessarily come to it from that perspective, now all of a sudden even he is looking at Bitcoin and the reason is because we are in this massive deflationary spiral and you have to figure out how to protect yourself.”

Tudor Jones revealed that he was holding between 1-2% of his assets in Bitcoin as it reminded him of gold in the 1970’s.

The announcement spurred a Bitcoin rally to $10,000 last week as traders tried to capitalise on the hype and optimism leading up to the halving.

Palihapitiya continued: “And so, however you think about it, from a classic economic theory or the schmuck insurance where you’re somewhat skeptical of the established governing masses, it is important that we have a hedge — a non-correlated hedge — and I still struggle to find anything that is as uncorrelated to anything else and to everything else than bitcoin.

“And I think that, you know, if we see it have its day, it’s a moment where you’re going to wish that you had just bought the 1% and just kept it.”

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