Benzinga - The leader of a prominent banking company offered some harsh criticism of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) in 2017. While criticism is nothing new, the person who made the comments at the time is generating interest in these comments made more than five years ago.
What Happened: Swiss bank Credit Suisse AG (NYSE: CS) is among the banking giants that have struggled in recent months. The troubles eventually led to the bank being bought out by Swiss peer UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS) at a discount.
With several banks collapsing and questions about the banking industry, some experts have suggested investment in the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki has told investors to buy gold, silver and Bitcoin with banks in trouble.
The leader of one of the banks in trouble spoke out against Bitcoin in 2017, something fans of the cryptocurrency haven’t forgotten.
Tidjane Thiam, the former CEO of Credit Suisse, called Bitcoin a bubble while speaking at a press conference on Nov. 2, 2017, CoinDesk reported.
“From what we can identity, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble,” Thiam said.
Thiam also mentioned the close links to Bitcoin and crime saying that banks like Credit Suisse “have little or no appetite to get involved in a currency which has such anti-money laundering challenges.”
Thiam is not the only critic of Bitcoin. Other prominent investors such as Warren Buffett and Ray Dalio have spoken out against Bitcoin, with Buffett referring to the cryptocurrency as “rat poison squared.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has been one of the banking CEOs speaking out against Bitcoin for years.
Thiam resigned from Credit Suisse in February 2020, after being CEO since March 2015. Thiam is now the chairman of Freedom Acquisition I Corp (NYSE: FACT), a SPAC merging with Complete Solaria, a solar company.
While Credit Suisse was not led by Thiam recently, Twitter user Joe Burnett, an analyst at Blockware Solutions, shared the details.
“Over 5 years ago, the CEO of Credit Suisse called Bitcoin a bubble. Since then, BTC is up 318% and Credit Suisse just sold for 1/5 the size of Dogecoin,” Burnett tweeted.
The tweet generated a face with tears of joy emoji response from Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the CEO and co-founder of Binance.
Related Link: How To Buy Bitcoin
Investing $1,000 in Bitcoin: Hearing the CEO of one of the largest banks in the world call Bitcoin a bubble might have scared many investors away. The comments also might have led some investors to believe that they could get in before major banks catch onto the capabilities and investment cases for cryptocurrency.
With Bitcoin trading at $6,758.72 on Nov. 2, 2017, a person could have bought 0.1480 BTC with $1,000. The same $1,000 investment would be worth $4,151.97.
This represents a return of 315.2% in a period of 5.33 years for an average annual return of 59.1%.
Investors could have listened to the comments about Bitcoin being a bubble and invested the $1,000 in shares of Credit Suisse instead. A $1,000 investment could have purchased 61.5 shares of Credit Suisse at the time.
The $1,000 investment in Credit Suisse would be worth $60.28 today based on a price of 98 cents per share at the time of writing. This represents a loss of 93.9% on the investment, or an average annual loss of 17.6%.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY), which tracks the S&P 500, is up 155.2% over the same time period, representing an average annual gain of 29.1%.
Read Next: 10 Things Credit Suisse Is Older Than: Light Bulbs, Telephones, Radios, Sports Leagues And More
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