Billionaire Thomas Peterffy Owns Cryptocurrency to ‘Play the Odds’

Thomas Peterffy is an online brokerage pioneer and billionaire businessman,  has revealed he has invested in cryptocurrencies, even while expressing skepticism over the long-term future of the cryptocurrency space.

The founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, revealed the investment, but did not specify which cryptocurrency or cryptocurrencies he has invested in.

“Even I myself have put a little bit of money into crypto, because even though chances are, I think, that this is not going to be a viable market, I think that there’s a small chance that this will be a dominant currency, so you have to play the odds.”

Peterffy’s words come as Interactive Brokers, a firm founded in 1978 that “, “operates the largest electronic trading platform in the U.S. by number of daily average revenue trades,” is planning to introduce cryptocurrency trading services on its platform.

The billionaire has historically been a skeptic when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Back in 2017, when the CME was getting ready to launch bitcoin futures contracts, he warned against the “linking bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by federal regulations to the real economy,” even though he had no problem with those who wanted to trade BTC.

As for Interactive Brokers’ upcoming crypto offering, Peterffy said some of the firm’s clients “expressed an interest,” which he “completely” understands, and as a result, the firm is adding the offering.

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