Kingdom Holding, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s investment firm, will not invest in cryptocurrency in the near future because it has not been adopted as a payment method for goods and services, CEO Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman said, Reuters reported.
The prince, a senior member of the Saudi royal family, is known for his Warren Buffett-style value investing approach and, like him, has consistently shunned cryptocurrencies. The company’s estimated $13.6 billion in assets are held in a diversified portfolio that includes holdings in financial, hospitality, healthcare, media, technology and real estate companies.
“We support Mr. Buffet’s theory that you do not buy or invest in them, so since we cannot buy any products with cryptocurrencies, therefore we are not considering investing in them,” Al-Maiman said on the sidelines. from the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to Reuters.
Rumors on social media have long suggested that the Saudi royal family would invest in cryptocurrencies, and the recently improved US regulatory outlook given President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance was seen as a catalyst for that investment.
Al-Waleed’s public comments on bitcoin reflect the company’s crypto concerns. In 2017, the Saudi prince said he believes cryptocurrency is “just going to implode one day.”
