Saudi Prince’s Investment Firm Shuns Crypto Investments, Citing Lack of Utility: Reuters

Kingdom Holding, the investment firm of Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, won’t 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 crypto. The company’s estimated $13.6 billion in assets are held in a diversified portfolio that includes holdings in finance, hospitality, health care, media, technology and real estate companies.

“We support Mr. Buffet’s theory that you don’t buy with, don’t invest in, so as we cannot buy any goods with cryptocurrencies, therefore we are currently not looking into investing in them,” Al-Maiman said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, according to Reuters.

Rumors on social media have for long suggested that the Saudi royal family would invest in cryptocurrencies, and the recently improved U.S. 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 the cryptocurrency is “just going to implode one day.”