WikipediaThe Wolf of Wall Street himself, Jordan Belfort, has slammed Bitcoin as a dangerous cryptocurrency.
Belfort, who cut his teeth on Wall Street in its 80s heyday, calls initial coin offerings the ‘biggest scam ever’ and ‘far worse than anything I was ever doing.’
The former stockbroker-cum-author spent 22 months in prison for running scams, costing the investor around £150 million.
Since leaving in 2005, he’s earned millions as a motivational speaker and author of The Wolf of Wall Street, which was adapted into a film in 2013, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Paramount PicturesHe told the Financial Times:
It’s the biggest scam ever, such a huge, gigantic scam that’s going to blow up in so many people’s faces.
It’s far worse than anything I was ever doing.
Promoters are perpetuating a massive scam of the highest order on everyone.
Probably 85% of people out there don’t have bad intentions but the problem is, if five or 10% are trying to scam you it’s a f*cking disaster.
[ooyala player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8″ auto=”true” width=”1280″ height=”720″ pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l” code=”IzNWluZDE6Jz-jqjNAvSC-pnXMXfxR66″]
He added:
Everyone and their grandmother wants to jump in right now. I’m not saying there’s something with the idea of cryptocurrencies, or even tulip bulbs. It’s the people who will then get involved and bastardise the idea.
It was reported last week, Bitcoin’s mysterious ‘creator’ was set to become the world’s first trillionaire.
We know a name, Satoshi Nakamoto, but beyond that, we really don’t know anything else, although Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright claimed in 2016, it’s him.
PixabaySatoshi could be alive, he could be dead? He could be a she, he could be a number of people? Nobody knows for certain.
However, if the simplest explanation is in fact true, then Satoshi Nakamoto – whoever they truly are – is currently the 52nd richest person in the world if measured against Forbes‘ list of billionaires.
Not only that, but some say he could well be on his way to topping the list as the world’s first trillionaire, according to Mashable.
PixabayThis is the breakdown of just how it’s possible. Nakamoto is thought to be holding around 1 million Bitcoins and at the current prices, it gives him a healthy $17 billion for his trouble of starting the currency.
Some people say he has fewer Bitcoins, but most people agree on the sum of around one million.
So we already know he’s ludicrously wealthy, but many are stating the recent surge in the price of the cryptocurrency is just the beginning.
Now, Satoshi has been off-the-grid since April 2011 and his Bitcoin stash has never actually moved, so we don’t even know where he’s up to?
GettySo why would someone like him sit on a fortune of $17 billion and not spend a single penny of it? Well, that’s because if he did, he’d likely have his house raided like Craig Wright did in 2016 and be arrested.
In order for Nakamoto to become the richest man in the world, the price of Bitcoin has to hit $88,000 – which sounds ludicrous, yet this time last year, saying Nakamoto would be anywhere near even the 100 richest people in the world would have been ludicrous.
For Satoshi to be considered the world’s first trillionaire, the price of Bitcoin would have to hit $1 million per coin, which isn’t out of the question.
Are pseudonymous people eligible for the Forbes Billionaires list? Because Satoshi Nakamoto is now comfortably in the top 100 richest people in the world.
— Timothy B. Lee (@binarybits) December 7, 2017
The figure has been touted by angel investor James Altucher and one of the Winklevoss twins recently called Bitcoin a ‘multitrillion-dollar asset’.
Back in 2011, one coin was worth one dollar, and a mere $200 two years ago – this kind of growth is absolutely unheard of, even for the digital behemoths like Google, Apple and Facebook.
But as Mashable point out, who else really has the chance of becoming the first trillionaire?
Of course, this growth in price isn’t going to last forever, but at this moment in time, it’s pretty much impossible to say which way the currency is going to go.
PixabayAt this point, one of the most interesting things which could happen is if Satoshi moves some of his fortune, it could cause a serious wobble of the currency.
So it’s kind of a catch-22, Satoshi has an unimaginable fortune, but if he spends a single part of it, the value of his fortune could well crash.
In the meantime, all anyone can do is look at the price of Bitcoin rise and wonder just who in the heck Satoshi Nakamoto is.
