Famed value investor Bill Miller talked about bitcoin in an interview with CNBC Wednesday. He is the founder of Miller Value Partners and currently serves as its chairman and chief investment officer. He manages the firms Opportunity Equity and Income Strategy funds. Prior to Miller Value Partners, he co-founded Legg Mason Capital Management.
Referring to bitcoin, Miller described, “It‘s like an insurance policy.” He elaborated: “Insurance policies have no intrinsic value. In fact, you want them to have no intrinsic value. You don’t want to have your house burned down or get in a terrible accident but you pay for insurance every year in case that happens.” Miller continued:
Bitcoin is insurance against financial catastrophe as we see in Lebanon, or in Afghanistan, or many of these other countries where we saw around the time of the pandemic.
Miller also clarified what he said in January about bitcoin being half of his net worth, noting that many media reports misinterpreted what he said. Miller explained that he only put a few percent of his net worth into bitcoin which then grew to become half of his total fortune as the price of the cryptocurrency soared. However, he added that now BTC accounts for less than half of his total net worth because the price has fallen since its high in November.
“I put a few percent of my net worth in it a long time ago and it grew to be half of my net worth. Now it‘s less than that because it’s down half since November. But its still a very big position,” he said.
Commenting on KPMG Canada buying bitcoin and ether for its corporate treasury, Miller said he sees the move as bullish for the crypto sector. The billionaire fund manager opined:
I think you‘re going to see a lot of adoption among foundations and endowments and institutions this year, and that’s going to continue.
The veteran investor has long been pro-bitcoin. In September last year, his hedge fund company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a filing that bitcoin has “significant upside potential” as digital gold.
When the price of bitcoin fell in May last year, he was unfazed by the falling price, emphasizing that bitcoin price corrections are pretty common.