Bitcoin
FOMO Alert! Bitcoin’s performance forces Norwegian tycoon to make a U-turn
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editor-in-chief
Tesla’s decision to buy $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin had a ripple effect across the crypto-market. Not only did the same precipitate a huge surge in the cumulative market cap of the sector, but it also catalyzed institutional and financial interest, with many firms around the world taking the lead in embracing Bitcoin.
However, it would seem that companies aren’t the only ones taking the hint. Entrepreneurs and industrial tycoons are too. A few weeks after Oil billionaire Kjell Inge Røkke revealed that his $6B industrial conglomerate is setting up a special unit to invest in Bitcoin, another industrialist has followed suit.
According to local media, billionaire and investor Øystein Stray Spetalen has also invested in Bitcoin. While the exact details of the purchase haven’t been revealed, Spetalen has also entered the ownership side of the Norwegian crypto-exchange Miraiex.
While the news of the purchase is obviously bullish news, what’s really interesting is that Spetalen was calling Bitcoin a “nonsense currency” just a few weeks ago. Speaking at the BNB Invest Conference in early March, he had said,
“… Bitcoin today consumes as much energy as all of Norway’s energy consumption. It is extremely environmentally hostile. If one really meant anything about bitcoin, the authorities and the EU should ban this immediately.”
“It’s just nonsense. We are doing well with the payment systems that are in place today,” he added.
Needless to say, FOMO has hit the Norwegian business tycoon hard, a sentiment highlighted by the fact that Spetalen told media,
“I also read that Kjell Inge Røkke had gone into Bitcoin, it was quite obvious. Can’t bear to see that Røkke makes money and not me.”
The timing of these Norwegian business tycoons diving into Bitcoin is interesting, especially since just recently, the country’s central bank itself came out with a statement citing the growing interest in Bitcoin and other cryptos.
In a statement given to Bloomberg, the Governor of Norges Bank said,
“[Bitcoin] is far too resource-intensive, far too costly and most importantly, it doesn’t preserve stability.”
