The founder and CEO of Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, said he does not understand bitcoin and that he lost $50 million investing in BTC after buying high and selling low.
Speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook conference, the 63-year-old Japanese billionaire revealed he believes digital currencies will be the future, but that he is staying away from bitcoin for the time being. He revealed he bought $200 million worth of the cryptocurrency in late 2017, when it was near its all-time high close to $20,000, after being advised to allocate 1% of his portfolio to it.
Bitcoin’s volatility and price drop seemingly distracted Masayoshi Son, who pointed out he spent five to 10 minutes checking out the cryptocurrency’s price per day. This started “distracting my focus from my own business,” and as a result he decided to sell his bitcoin holdings.
That year BTC entered a bear market, that saw its price drop to little over $3,000 by December. Son noted he lost $50 million on his investment.
So I said I would sell whatever the price, and I sold with some loss, maybe I lost $50 million, I don’t know…I forgot.
The billionaire CEO added that he cannot understand how bitcoin works and prefers to stay away from it for now, but believes a digital currency will play a significant role in the future. Son, however, added he doesn’t know “what digital currency, what structure.” Instead, he would rather focus on something he feels passionately about, artificial intelligence (AI).
During the conference Son also revealed he regretted not becoming an early investor in Amazon, as Jeff Bezos reportedly offered him the chance to buy 30% of the company before it went public.
Featured image via Pixabay.
