Dollars are only good for paying taxes
Star investor Carl Icahn, also known as the “horror of managers”, is looking for new stores of value for his assets. He keeps a close eye on cryptocurrencies.
The sentence could go down in history. “The only real value the dollar has is that you can use it to pay taxes.” With this statement, top investor Carl Icahn expressed himself in an interview with the Bloomberg format “Markets and Finance” on the question of whether cryptocurrencies at all would have any value.
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Cahn sees inflation on the horizon
The massive aid that US President Joe Biden is pumping into the market will almost certainly result in high inflation, says Icahn. In this respect, it cannot be said that crypto assets do not represent any real value compared to the dollar. In any case, the dollar should be called into question from this point of view. The more money the central banks would print, the less the individual monetary unit would be worth.
Cahn anticipates a stock market crash
Icahn also expects a crash on the heated stock market in the foreseeable future. Here he calls on the US government to step up efforts to protect investors. This could happen through stricter regulation of the trading floor, but also through stricter control of the supposed values, i.e. the companies (and funds).
Therefore: a store of value is required
Because of these coming adversities, many investors are looking for an “alternative store of value” for their assets. This store of value could be in cryptocurrencies. He himself could imagine putting $ 1.5 billion in cryptocoins. This is an investment in the future, because he is certain that cryptocurrencies will play a role in the future, especially due to the underlying blockchain technology.
He is currently watching “the whole business” and considering how he can get involved. It is clear that not all cryptocurrencies can survive. Here he would tend to rely on assets that offer added value in addition to the pure investment. He highlighted Ethereum.
The network not only houses the ether, but has now made it the market leader in decentralized finance (Defi) and the preferred storage service provider for the increasingly popular non-fungible tokens (NFT) with its smart contract blockchain.
Like many other investors, the 85-year-old Icahn sees cryptocurrencies only as an asset, as a “store of value”, not as a means of payment.
In view of the currently observed volatility, there would hardly be anyone who would seriously want to use such a means of payment for price labeling. Even taking into account an up-to-the-minute conversion factor to the dollar, the willingness is likely to be low. After all, there is no guarantee that the value will not fall by 25 percent or more in the next few hours. Liquidity planning on this basis would not convince either the tax advisor or the house bank.
