Bitcoin Has Effectively Replaced Gold, Says Virgin Galactic Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya

Chamath Palihatipiya Bitcoin replaces Gold (TechCrunch)

JAKARTA – In the midst of rising Bitcoin (BTC) prices after a recent crash, Chairman of Virgin Galactic and CEO of Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya said that Bitcoin had effectively replaced gold. Palihapitiya also predicts BTC's market capitalization will continue to grow.

Palihapitiya made this statement at a Delivering Alpha Conference during an interview with CNBC last week. In early 2021, Palihapitiya speculated that the price of Bitcoin would break through $200,000 within five years.

Commenting on the statement, he admitted that he had difficulty giving price predictions. However, Palihapitiya revealed that Bitcoin has replaced gold.

“It is very difficult for me to sit here to give you a price prediction, but I can confidently say that bitcoin, in my opinion, has effectively replaced gold. And it will continue to do so. And that market capitalization will only grow,” said Palihapitiya.

The Virgin Galactic chairman has long been a Bitcoin proponent. In 2013, he bought a large amount of Bitcoin. Palihapitiya claimed to own 5 percent of the total BTC circulating on the market.

“In 2013, I bought a lot and at one point I thought I owned almost 5% of all bitcoins. My base is around 80 dollars per coin. I never bought more," he said.

The investor also said that he did not invest large amounts of money other than in Bitcoin.

“I definitely don't put much money outside of bitcoin. You know, tens of millions, hundreds of millions — like small capital now. It can get really big. But regardless of what I do, I would say we all need to pay attention to it because I think the implications are huge."

Palihapitiya explained that cryptocurrencies and DeFi were part of Web 3.0, while Facebook and Google only controlled the internet in previous versions. He said that the evolution of the internet “is rebuilding it without a clear leader. It's completely leaderless. It is completely peer-to-peer. And I think it's both scary and exhilarating."

There are more and more parties who think that regulators will kill cryptocurrencies, as said by Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio who believes that the government can kill cryptocurrencies. Palihapitya responded that shutting down Bitcoin would be very difficult.

“I think it is very difficult to kill (Bitcoin). Technically, it's very difficult. As with the architecture, this is the most immersive iteration of the internet we've ever seen."

This statement is in line with what was expressed by Tesla boss Elon Musk who considered that cryptocurrency is impossible to turn off. Musk suggested that governments “do nothing” to regulate crypto.