Oaktree Capital founder changes his tune, says cryptocurrencies have value just like the dollar and the pound

Zhitong Finance learned that on Tuesday, Oaktree Capital founder Howard Marks' attitude towards Bitcoin further heated up. Marks said that his dismissive comments about cryptocurrencies in 2017 were "subconscious". Many assets are highly sought after by people, but they have no value in themselves.

Marks said: "It is true that cryptocurrencies have no tangible value, no earnings, no cash flows, and no assets. But isn't that true of all currencies? If dollars and pounds are accepted, then Bitcoin should have value too. In addition, many things that people want and value very highly have no intrinsic value, such as diamonds or paintings."

A few months ago, Marks said he didn’t have any Bitcoin, but thankfully his son did.

Marks also talked about the confidentiality of cryptocurrencies, “No one knows your holdings except you, not even the government. No one can steal it from you. It’s better than emerging market currencies.”

Howard Marks said a few years ago that Bitcoin will eventually fail and that Bitcoin is not a valuable long-term investment tool, but only a short-term trading opportunity. He once said that people buy Bitcoin because they want to make a quick profit by selling their assets to a "greater fool."

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, was trading at around $55,504 on Tuesday, down about 9% from its record high of more than $61,000 last weekend, but still up 88% year to date and more than 995% in the past 12 months.