PayPal Co-founder Peter Thiel Admits He Underinvested In Bitcoin

Billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel said he should have bought more Bitcoin. During an interview hosted by the Lincoln Network in Miami on Wednesday, he spoke about cryptocurrencies, central banks, and Artificial Intelligence.

Miami has become a hotspot for crypto investors. Several crypto startups recently announced new offices in the city. The PayPal co-founder’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, was also an early promoter of Miami as a new tech hub.

During the Miami event, Thiel praised cryptocurrencies and admitted that he may have underinvested in Bitcoin. “You’re supposed to just buy Bitcoin,” he said, adding: “I feel like I’ve been underinvested in it.” Thiel further pointed out that his only hesitation about investing was that he thought “the secret was already known by everybody.” He concluded by saying “I think the answers are still to go long. Maybe it still is enough of a secret.”

He made these statements after Bitcoin blasted to an all-time high of over $67,000 on Wednesday. Thiel deliberated whether it would rise further. “Bitcoin at $66,000. Is it going to go up? Maybe,” He also added that the surge in crypto prices, “tells us that we are at a complete bankruptcy moment for the central banks.”

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In the interview, the tech investor also criticized Artificial Intelligence as a disputant to cryptocurrency. He likened crypto to his political philosophy of being libertarian because it’s a “force for decentralization,” Therefore, “AI, especially the sort of low-tech, surveillance form, is essentially communist,” because it’s a force for centralization. Thiel further said that he does not want to outlaw AI. Instead, he would like the people building it to “think about how they’re working on a technology that’s going to destroy the world.”

The tech investor has been a Bitcoin believer for a while now. Even in 2018, when Bitcoin’s price was bottoming, Thiel maintained his stance. “I would be long on bitcoin,” he stated.

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Earlier this week, he also talked about Bitcoin at an event hosted by conservative law group Federalist Society. The PayPal co-founder suggested that Bitcoin’s current bull run points to weaknesses in the U.S. political system. “I don’t know that you should put all your money into Bitcoin at $60,000 a Bitcoin right now,” he said. “But surely the fact that it is at $60,000 is an extremely hopeful sign,” he continued. Describing Bitcoin as “the canary in the coal mine,” Thiel said, “It’s the most honest market we have in the country, and it’s telling us that this decrepit … regime is just about to blow up.”

In April, while suggesting that Bitcoin may be ‘Chinese financial weapon against the U.S.’, Thiel described himself as a “pro-crypto, pro-Bitcoin maximalist,”

Thiel explained that “From China’s point of view, they want to get — they don’t like the U.S. having this reserve currency, because it gives us a lot of leverage over Iranian oil supply chains and all sorts of things like that,”

He expressed concern with the Chinese government’s goal to weaken the U.S. dollar. However, weeks later, China defied his predictions by launching a wide-ranging crackdown on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.