Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin has a long way to go in order to serve as a viable, functional form of currency that could supplant fiat money, but he did compare it directly to gold.
“[Bitcoin is] not functional as a currency,” Dorsey told the Australian Financial Review. “The peaks and troughs are like an investment asset and are equivalent to gold. What we need to do is make it more usable and accessible as a currency, but it’s not there yet.”
That doesn’t mean Dorsey doesn’t endorse Bitcoin as in investment. For potential investors looking to dip their toes into crypto assets, they might be best served to stick with Bitcoin.
“I think [bitcoin is]the best bet because it’s been the most resilient, it’s around for 10 years, it has a great brand and it’s been tested a bunch,” Dorsey said. “As I look at all cryptocurrencies that could fill that role of being the native currency for the internet, [bitcoin is]a pretty high probability.”
The market volatility seen in U.S. equities spurred a move towards safe haven assets like bonds and gold. Subsequently, Bitcoin has also been seeing a rise, which was helped by the buzz surrounding the release of social media giant Facebook’s cryptocurrency project—dubbed “lira.”
Thus far in 2019, Bitcoin has risen 200% and that has Dorsey excited given that his other company he co-founded, Square, generated $125 million in Bitcoin revenue during the second quarter of 2019.
While Dorsey has no plans for Twitter to launch its own cryptocurrency that could rival that of Facebook’s lira, he did support the notion of open internet standards as opposed to those originated by corporations.
“Open internet standards serve every person better than ones controlled or started by companies,” Dorsey told the Sydney Morning Herald.
While a Bitcoin ETF has yet to hit the capital markets officially, investors can get in on the mobile payments sector, which is seeing exponential growth. One fund to consider is the ETFMG Prime Mobile Payments ETF (NYSEArca: IPAY).
IPAY seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the Prime Mobile Payments Index. The index tracks the performance of the exchange-listed equity securities of companies across the globe that (i) engage in providing payment processing services or applications, (ii) provide payment solutions, (iii) build or provide payment industry architecture, infrastructure or software, or (iv) provide services as a credit card network.
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.
