Billionaire Druckenmiller calls Bitcoin a 'brand' he should probably own

Billionaire Stan Druckenmiller doesn't own any bitcoin and admits that's possibly a mistake.

"I don't own any bitcoin to be frank but I should," said Druckenmiller. The former hedge fund manager who founded Duquesne Capital spoke with hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones during an fireside chat at an investors conference in New York City on Oct. 24. 

At least as far back as 2020, the esteemed investor has been calling bitcoin an asset class and store of value similar to gold. That same year, Druckenmiller said he owned some bitcoin, but he must have liquidated his position given his comments on Monday.

Druckenmiller spoke about how popular bitcoin is with the younger generation and that given how long it has been around he considers the cryptocurrency to be, like gold, a "brand." Although he also said he liked bitcoin as an asset class, he prefers gold, which he owns.

"I'm 70 years old, I own gold," he said in his interview. "I was surprised bitcoin got going but ... it's clear the young people look at it as a store of value because it's a lot easier to do stuff with and 17 years, to me, it's a brand. [But] I like gold because it's 5,000 year-old brand."

Bitcoin BTC -2.23% 's dominance recently reached a multi-year high, according to The Block's data dashboard, with the digital asset's market share rising to 51.5% of the entire cryptocurrency sector, the highest level since April 2021. The price of bitcoin rose sharply last week to about $35,000 on expectations that spot bitcoin ETFs may soon become available to investors who want to bet on the price of the asset without having to own it.