Bill Gates reveals why he doesn’t own a cryptocurrency

Bill Gates says he doesn’t own cryptocurrency because he prefers to “invest his money in things that have a valuable output.”

The Microsoft founder, who is the fourth richest man in the world with a personal fortune of $116 billion (£92.8 billion), made the comments during an “Ask Me Anything” event on Reddit.

“The value of companies is based on how they make great products,” wrote Mr. Gates.

“The value of crypto is just what another person decides someone else will pay for it, so not contributing to society like other investments.”

Cryptocurrencies have lost around $1 trillion in value in 2022, with $200 billion wiped out in just 24 hours earlier this month alone.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, hit an all-time high of more than $68,000 in November 2021 but was trading at just over $29,300 as of Saturday afternoon.

Mr. Gates isn’t the only billionaire shunning crypto.

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said at his company’s annual meeting in April that he was extremely skeptical.

“Whether it’s going up or down next year, or in five or ten years, I don’t know. But there’s one thing I’m pretty sure it’s not producing,” Mr. Buffett said. “There’s something magical about it, and people associated a lot of things with magic.”