Ken Moelis is an investment banker who knows a thing or two about finance. In a recent interview, he likened the bitcoin craze to the California Gold Rush of 1848, and says he is also looking for a few crypto business opportunities himself.
Ken Moelis: The Gold Rush Is Back, Only Now People Are Seeking BTC
Moelis is the founder of boutique bank Moelis & Co. While he, himself, is personally open to directly investing in bitcoin and its competing altcoin cousins, he says his business is approaching the situation a little differently. Rather, the bank is seeking to educate itself as much as possible before having other people enter the space on its behalf.
In a statement, he claims:
It is a big market. There is a lot of capital in there. There are a lot of projects.
He further mentions that he is hesitant to allow his entire company to delve into cryptocurrency given that it does not appear to be a space in which many banks have gotten mixed up, though he feels that this is changing with time as more and more financial institutions are looking to offer crypto custody services and similar features to remain competitive and adhere to their customers’ needs. Discussing the present crypto craze amongst both individuals and businesses alike, he says:
It is like the gold rush of 1848. A lot of people did not know if there was gold in the ground, but Levi’s made a business selling jeans and Wells Fargo made a banking business. I believe our business is selling the picks and the shovels, so we may have to know what people want – what picks and what shovels they need, what tools they need to be successful.
Moelis says that for the most part, the people driven to major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are following strict rules with themselves and looking to make legitimate profits. This is backed up by the high number of institutional investors suddenly flooding the bitcoin space along with brokers such as e-Toro adding more than five million addresses in the last year alone.
Some People Are Just “Having Fun”
However, he also commented that when it comes to assets like Dogecoin and meme-based stocks, the people involved are simply looking to have some fun and get their feet wet before jumping into something bigger. He claims that many of these individuals are simply trying to outdo Wall Street in some way and are playing around:
They are just having fun. I think 70 to 80 percent of this is fun. When you go to a casino, the most boisterous, loudest craps table is always the one where everyone runs over because someone has made their point. They have predicted something… At every craps table, 70 to 80 percent of the people, they know they are having fun and know they are going to lose their money.
