Billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman says he remains bullish on cryptocurrencies despite the recent collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the ensuing market turmoil.
In a tweet dated Nov. 20 threadthe CEO and founder of hedge fund management firm Pershing Square Capital Management, said he believes “crypto is here to stay despite recent challenges,” despite the need to step up oversight and remove “rogue actors” from the space.
Bill Ackman is a billionaire American investor who recently called for the removal of regulatory roadblocks and the relaxation of rules in New York to transform the city into a crypto hub. He is also a direct investor in a number of crypto projects.
“I think crypto is here to stay and with proper oversight and regulation, it has the potential to bring great benefits to society and grow the global economy,” he said.
However, Ackman said that like the invention of the telephone and the internet, technology keeps improving in terms of its ability to facilitate fraud:
“The problem with crypto is that unethical promoters can create tokens just to facilitate pump-and-dump schemes. In fact, it may be that the vast majority of cryptocoins are used for fraudulent purposes rather than building legitimate businesses.”
Aside from that, Ackman said these “crooked actors” can be eliminated with proper oversight from industry leaders:
“All legitimate participants in the crypto ecosystem should therefore have a high incentive to detect and eliminate rogue actors as they significantly increase the risk of regulatory intervention that will set back the positive potential impact of crypto for generations.”
The investor also said that while he was initially a “crypto skeptic,” he now sees that it “has the potential to bring great benefits to society and grow the global economy,” he said, adding:
“I was initially a crypto skeptic [but] I have come to believe that crypto can enable the formation of useful businesses and technologies [before now] could not be created.
“The ability to issue a token to incentivize participants in a venture is a powerful lever to access a global workforce to drive a project forward,” he added.
Ackman added that “sound regulation and oversight” is critical to advancing the technology.
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The hedge fund manager’s tweet comes amid the recent FTX collapse.
Ackman reportedly initially praised former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for admitting his mistakes, but later deleted the tweet.
