The price of bitcoin has been rising recently, surpassing $18,000 and R$100,000 in Brazil, but Masayoshi said he doesn’t want to get involved with something he doesn’t understand anymore.
Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of the Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group, managed to lose millions by buying Bitcoin up and selling it down. The 63-year-old Japanese billionaire and philanthropist recently spoke about his grief, especially financial woes, during The New York Times‘ DealBook conference.
Among the many regrets is the loss of becoming one of Amazon’s first investors, as Jeff Bezos offered him 30% of the company before going public.
He also learned valuable lessons from disappointments, such as investing billions in WeWork, whose plans to go public soon failed.
Interestingly, the Japanese managed to lose money on Bitcoin, the currency that hasn’t stopped valuing since 2009.
Bitcoin’s loss of R$288 million: „it was a distraction“.
During his speech he said he bought about $200 million in Bitcoin at the end of 2017, after being advised to allocate 1% of his portfolio to cryptomeda, the suggestion came from a friend.
But the high volatility of the market became a distraction for him, who ended up selling the Bitcoins at a loss of about $50 million.
Masayoshi also said he did not fully „understand“ the Bitcoin Supreme, despite betting millions of dollars. He watched for five minutes a day looking at the prices.
„I looked at the price every day. I thought, ‚that’s not good‘. That’s something I don’t understand. It’s distracting my focus on my own business,“ said the Japanese billionaire. „So I sold at any price, maybe I lost $50 million, I don’t know… I forgot.“
A Wall Street Journal report suggests that the losses are higher, staying close to $130 million. Even so, Masayoshi is happy, he said at the conference that the digital coins „will not disappear anytime soon.
The price of bitcoin has been rising recently, exceeding $18,000 and $100,000 in Brazil, but Masayoshi said he doesn’t want to get involved with something he doesn’t understand anymore.
„Maybe it’s worth more than the price I sold, but I feel much better because at least I don’t have to focus on something I don’t understand.