By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Thoma Bravo has been making strategic investments in some of the most innovative crypto startups of late.
Orlando Bravo, Puerto Rican billionaire investor, co-founder, and managing partner of Thoma Bravo, is very bullish on the growth of Bitcoin (BTC), the premier digital currency. In an interview with CNBC, Bravo, whose private equity investment firm specializes in software and technology-enabled services sectors believes Bitcoin is here to stay and is positive the price of the cryptocurrency will surge in the coming years.
“How could you not love crypto?” Bravo said Wednesday at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference. “Crypto is just a great system. It’s frictionless. It’s decentralized. And young people want their own financial system. So it is here to stay.”
Bitcoin’s popularity cannot be disputed as the cryptocurrency has been at the forefront of leading the broader digital currency industry in its surge above the $2 trillion valuations this year. Many backers, including retail and institutional investors, are beginning to gain an increased appreciation of the nascent asset class.
“The underlying technology of blockchain, regardless of what protocol or what system you are building upon, can be very powerful and sometimes provides better use cases than data-based software,” Bravo said.
Thoma Bravo has been making strategic investments in some of the most innovative crypto startups of late. The firm invested in FTX’s latest Series B fundraise which values the derivatives trading platform at $18 billion. Just the way his firm is taking positions in the crypto industry, Bravo believes other institutional investors are just beginning to discover the goldmine. At its prime, he believes investor push will further drive down the growth potential of Bitcoin in the mid to long term.
“For me, it’s pretty simple. More people are going to use in the future than today, and it’s going to be more established. Institutions are just beginning to go there, and once that happens, I think it will increase significantly over the years. I’m very bullish,” Bravo said.
Bitcoin Growth Taking Heat from Regulatory Crackdown
Bitcoin has welcomed a number of investors in the past year including electric automaker, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), business intelligence firm, MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ: MSTR), and payment services provider, Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) amongst others.
While these investors are expected to help keep the balance in the price of Bitcoin, supported by retail investments in the digital asset, a stronger force, regulations, is notably suppressing the growth of the digital currency. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose top goal now is to usher in new regulations in conjunction with other market regulators as well as support from the US Congress.
Chinese regulators are also unrelenting in their crackdown on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole. Last week, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) re-affirmed it will sanction any form of digital currency-related services being done in the country, a position that is in line with the pursuit of Bitcoin miners earlier in the year.
Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry have survived all of the worst negativities from regulators in the past and are poised to survive the current crackdown, however, the impact on growth may be very resounding in the short to mid-term.