The popular public figure Jordan Belfort (better known as “The Wolf of Wall Street”) advised investors to look at bitcoin as a long-term investment. In his view, those who hold the asset for over 36 months will most probably make some profits.
The Belfort Crypto Guidance
Jordan Belfort – the infamous stockbroker whose story inspired Martin Scorsese’s film “The Wolf of Wall Street” – hasn’t always been kind to the major cryptocurrency. In 2018, he opined that bitcoin is based on big fool theory and that investors should get out of its ecosystem before they lose all their money.
Amidst the bull run in the spring of 2021, though, Belfort totally changed his stance and predicted that the asset could reach $100,000 by the end of the year.
He doubled his support during his last interview for Yahoo Finance. He praised its limited supply of 21 million coins that never existed, saying that as inflation continues to rise, bitcoin will “start to trade more like a store of value and less like a growth stock”.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” also thinks the leading digital asset could be an appropriate investment tool as long as people have “diamond hands” and do not sell it for a period of 3-5 years (even though price fluctuations will imminently occur):
“If you take a three or maybe five year horizon, I’d be shocked if you didn’t make money because the underlying fundamentals of bitcoin are really strong.”
Subsequently, the American opined that bitcoin is still in its early days, which is why it is normal to correlate with the NASDAQ and tech stocks and not trade as a hedge against inflation (similar to gold).
“There’s no real institutional ownership in bitcoin, for example, you don’t have a teachers’ pension fund holding bitcoin for ten-year coverage, that’s not the case yet,” he added.
The Dangers of the Crypto Industry
Apart from bitcoin, Belfort gave his two cents on how people should protect themselves from cryptocurrency scams. Compared to traditional finance, the digital asset sector lacks comprehensive rules, which explains why sometimes “people are getting slaughtered.”
“In crypto, you can go out and fundraise, but there’s no disclosure, and whenever there’s no disclosure, it always ends badly,” he said.
He advised investors to beware when dealing with a certain cryptocurrency project and get familiar with its executive team. Belfort believes that a protocol with unknown owners should be considered a huge concern.
Finally, he warned people to check the usefulness of the projects they want to invest in. If the idea behind a particular company works better from a centralized server, “I probably wouldn’t get involved,” he said.
