Hedge fund manager Mark W. Yusko recently told Yahoo Finance that cryptocurrencies are on track to become “the biggest assets in the world over the next decade.” The American investor also slammed those who have criticized digital currencies, arguing they either cannot retain value, can’t be considered money, or are just complete “nonsense.”

Yusko, the CEO of Morgan Creek Management Capital, an investment firm that advises high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), had earlier announced his company’s partnership with Bitwise, a cryptocurrency index fund. This partnership involves the launch of the Digital Index Fund, an initiative focused on encouraging institutional investors to learn more about cryptocurrencies and invest in them.

Encouraging Insitutional Investors

Institutional investors are still “waiting on the sidelines” reportedly because of the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies and the slow development of reliable custodian services for them. Despite these concerns and the “immature” state of crypto-related technology, Yusko has advised that “every investor should be considering an allocation to digital assets right now.”

The philanthropist with over $1.5 billion of assets under management further noted the growth and development of cryptocurrencies is comparable to the emergence of large and firmly established tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

Yusko remarked that cryptocurrencies today are “like [how the] the internet [was in] … 1993, 1994, when Google was just being thought of and no one thought it was very important.” However, the University of Notre Dame graduate’s positive views on cryptocurrencies are not shared by most traditional market investors.

Slamming Crypto Critics

As covered, billionaire business magnate and investor Warren Buffett has compared cryptos to “turds” and “dementia.” The “Oracle of Omaha” has argued bitcoin cannot be considered a productive asset like real estate or shares in corporate stocks because he thinks the cryptocurrency has no intrinsic value.

While speaking to Yahoo Finance in late April, Buffett said that investing in bitcoin was like betting on the “greater fool theory” as people who hold it are “just hoping that the next guy pays more.”

As reported by CryptoGlobe, Jordan Belfort, the “Wolf of Wall Street” who spent 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to stock-market manipulation, recently claimedthe same type of pump-and-dump schemes he had been running were also being carried out by numerous crypto market traders.

Responding to the crypto critics, Yusko questioned why people were giving so much credibility to Belfort’s negative views about digital currencies. The alternative investment industry commentator said,

“The fact that people look at him and say, ‘He’s a bad guy and he did bad things, so I should trust him,’ is nonsensical. Absolutely nonsensical.”

Mark Yusko