Billionaire Carl Icahn Explores Crypto Investment of Up to $1.5 Billion

Reynaldo Marquez

Last Updated: May 27, 2021 12:53 am

3 mins read

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Legendary American businessman Carl Icahn has apparently changed his position on cryptocurrencies. In an interview for Bloomberg Markets’, Icahn hinted at a potential investment of up to $1.5 billion in the sector.

Thus, Carl Icahn shares the stance of Stanley Druckenmiller, Paul Tudor Jones, and most recently Ray Dalio on this new asset class. Icahn believes the rise of cryptocurrencies is a “natural manifestation” of the current macro-economic outlook and its inflation.

With these economic circumstances, investors are looking for new stores of value outside the United States dollar. Much like Dalio, Icahn fears that the dollar is heading towards depreciation and potentially, it could lose its status as reserve current if the Federal Reserve “keeps printing the money”.

Carl Icahn claimed he is “not an investor yet” but disagrees with the critics of these assets and finds as much value in a cryptocurrency as in the U.S. dollar. He said: “The only value of the dollar really is because you can use it to pay taxes”.

Carl Icahn: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are Here To Stay

When asked about the specific use cases between Bitcoin, “commonly” perceived as the store of value, and Ethereum, the ecosystem for decentralized applications, Carl Icahn seemed well informed.

The legendary investor was able to provide a unique point of view, often not heard from someone in traditional finances. He said:

Ethereum is the underlying blockchain. So, Ethereum has two things you can use it as a payment system you can use the store of value. So, you need Ethereum, the blockchain, to assure you that you have something. You never had that before where you can buy a cryptocurrency and you can say, “I’m safe” because you have the blockchain makes it very safe for you. I’m oversimplifying.

Icahn believes that this is what provides cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, with “great value”. However, he added that the main two cryptocurrencies are “different”. While Bitcoin is “just a store of value”, Ethereum is “sort of a value-added company”.

Although he pointed out that calling it a company was not accurate. When asked if he was looking to invest specifically in any of these two cryptocurrencies, he replied: “I’m looking at the whole business and how I might get involved in it in a relatively big way”.

Later, Carl Icahn said that cryptocurrencies are here to stay and clarified that going into a business in a “Big way” could lead to an investment of $1 billion, $1.5 billion, or more. He seemed more bullish on Ethereum and, as a final thought, said that it is unlikely that all cryptocurrencies will survive.

This has led many to speculate on the possibility that Icahn might already be a crypto investor. Anonymous analyst MacroScope said the following on this possibility:

Two things based on decades of watching Icahn:

You will hear more when he has a full position…a lot more (and very loudly), and that position will indeed be a full one. Don’t underestimate the impact this has on legacy PMs/traders esp in NYC, where Icahn is worshipped.

Ethereum trades at $2,799 with 11.8% profit in the weekly chart and a 4.8% profit in the daily chart. The monthly chart has a 10.6% profit and appears to have enough conviction to try a push towards the $3,000 mark. A successful advance towards this area could determine the fate of ETH’s price action in the short term.

Carl Icahn Ethereum Bitcoin ETH ETHUSD — ETH approaching the resistance zone at $3,000. Source: ETHUSD Tradingview

Reynaldo Marquez

A literature major, Reynaldo Márquez has been deeply immersed in the crypto industry since 2017. His journey began with translating articles for various crypto news outlets, a role he took on with zeal. In 2018, amidst a challenging market, he embraced his first writing assignment, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to the nascent industry and the promise of change it bears for many people worldwide.
In March 2021, he joined the prestigious crypto news outlet NewsBTC and Bitcoinist, where he not only reported on the latest crypto news but also had the privilege of interviewing some of the industry's most influential figures. A year later, his dedication and hard work were recognized, and he was promoted to Managing Editor, a position he currently holds with pride.
He believes in honesty, good communication, hard work, and the power of cryptocurrency and its potential to transform people's lives, especially those alienated by the legacy financial system. Born in 1992 in Venezuela, Reynaldo is familiar with how governments and central banks can negatively affect people, their everyday lives, and their futures by creating inflation and erasing their hopes for a better future. Thus, like many Venezuelans, he embraced this new technology to help him and his family navigate difficult times.
In another life, Reynaldo would have pursued a career as an investigator, most likely tracking down the origins of the Cyberpunk movement with the publication of William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer.’ The intersection between fiction and reality, with the materialization of Bitcoin in 2009, would have allowed him to dive deep into the crypto sphere as something more than a financial phenomenon but also a cultural shift in society that was brewing since the XX century, and maybe even sooner, in the XIX century with the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience.’
But that’s for another life. In this one, Reynaldo has been trading to improve his trading skills. Since 2023, he has been trying to learn Python to create successful strategies and find ways to execute them. It is a difficult task, which continues to keep him busy today and will most likely continue to keep him busy in the near and long term.
In his free time, he enjoys lifting heavy objects, reading, watching movies, and listening to his favorite music. Some of his favorite authors are Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, James Baldwin, Raymond Carver, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Mario Vargas Llosa, Reinaldo Arenas, Rafael Cadenas, and many others. Lately, he has been primarily interested in reading about dystopic societies, a topic that deeply resonates with the crypto industry.
Since 2023, he has lived in Spain with his wife. He loves the weather, the food, and the people and their culture. They both expect to travel much more within the country they now call home and beyond its border. He hopes to retire with his wife, maybe in a quiet place near a beach, but most likely in a city close to a library and a university with his kids and, hopefully, grandkids.

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