Billionaire converts to Bitcoin in just 9 days

By: Bharggavi Ssayee

March 29, 2021 1:10 PM

Norwegian billionaire Øystein Stray Spetalen was radically hostile to Bitcoin. Nine days later, his opinion on BTC is totally different.

This is called a sudden and radical conversion. Within days, Øystein Stray Spetalen went from outright hostility to adopting Bitcoin. And the interest of other great fortunes is no stranger to this unexpected rally.

On March 18, during a conference, the Norwegian billionaire therefore expressed all his bad feelings about the first cryptocurrency. Spetalen thus lined up behind many of the arguments developed by another billionaire, Bill Gates.

Bitcoin? An "absurd currency"

He thus qualified the BTC of “absurd currency”. But he also denounced its disastrous environmental impact. “Bitcoin now consumes as much energy as all of Norway. It is extremely harmful to the environment. The authorities and the EU should ban it immediately. "

But that was before. The days have passed and the billionaire’s opinion has shifted. In a Norwegian daily, Finansavisen, Øystein Stray Spetalen indeed declares to have taken a stake in a Norwegian crypto exchange, MiraiEx.

It was therefore a discussion with its founders that would have led it to reconsider its position. “When the facts change, I change,” he says very simply. "I understood that I was wrong," he adds. Mea culpa therefore.

BTC rally spurred by another billionaire

But the arguments of the bosses of MiraiEx may not be the main driver of this turnaround. Spetalen admits to having also discovered the interest of another Norwegian billionaire in Bitcoin.

Kjell Inge Røkke thus holds BTC. “It was pretty obvious. I can't bear to see Røkke making money and not me, ”Spetalen confesses bluntly. Decidedly, convictions sometimes hold for very little.

According to Decrypt, in March Røkke launched a subsidiary specializing in crypto trading. He was also in the process of acquiring Bitcoin for 500 million Norwegian kroner (approximately $ 58 million).

A rival’s decisions matter to Spetalen, more obviously than his concern for the environment. The billionaire tells Finansavisen that he now also owns Bitcoin. How ? Less than Røkke. At least for the moment.

The environmental cost of Bitcoin could also ease. Two mining players are joining forces to produce crypto using green energy. Argo Blockchain and DMG are launching a clean energy Bitcoin mining pool. What to appease the consciences of certain great fortunes.