VIDEO–Frank Holmes, “There’s a Rational Reason for Speculating in Bitcoin”

The gold versus bitcoin debate certainly isn’t a new one, and Frank Holmes, chief executive and chief investment officer at US Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) is no stranger to this discussion. In fact, in the past Holmes has said the two don’t really compare at all and that bitcoin “isn’t stealing gold’s thunder” in any way.

At this year’s CanTech Investment Conference in Toronto, the Investing News Network (INN) had the opportunity to catch up with Holmes to get further insight on the gold versus bitcoin discussion as well as his thoughts on the blockchain sector.

When asked about what investors should know if they’re considering investing in bitcoin or gold–or even both–Holmes said they’re inclusive, not exclusive. Expanding on that thought, Holmes said in 2017 initial coin offerings (ICOs), generated nearly $4 billion, which has hurt the small cap stocks.

“Millennials would rather go speculate in new ICOs than open up a brokerage account, which could take two to three days,” he said. Holmes continued, adding that an account with the Einstein Exchange in Canada or Coinbase in the US can be created and people can own cryptocurrencies much quicker, which Holmes said is where the issue with competition between bitcoin and gold is.

In terms of what to keep an eye out for in the cryptocurrency space for the rest of 2018, Holmes said blockchain technology will be the bigger story to watch beyond cryptocurrencies. As non-executive chairman of the board of directors of HIVE Blockchain Technologies (TSXV:HIVE), Holmes said the company is manufacturing the coins–virgin coins–which Holmes stressed is “very important.”

“A lot of these exchanges and concerns by the regulators is buying hacker’s coins,” he said. “They will not allow an ETF to come out to buy bitcoin, or ethereum. For us, we just mine these virgin coins.”

Watch the video above to find out more of what Holmes had to say about HIVE Blockchain, what his interest in the company was, and what excites him about the blockchain space moving forward. For our interview with Harry Pokrandt, CEO of HIVE Blockchain, you can watch the video here.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Jocelyn Aspa, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.