Tech billionaire Bill Gates has dismissed NFTs as “100 percent based on greater fool theory” — the financial concept that even overpriced assets can make money as long as you find a bigger idiot to sell them to.

Speaking to an event about climate change hosted by TechCrunch , Gates stated that he prefers investing in tangible outputs like factories or farms, and that he does not hold any position in NFTs or cryptocurrencies. “I’m not involved with that. Gates stated that he is not involved in those activities. This suggests that Gates was suspicious of assets intended to “avoid taxes or any type of government rules

” “Obviously, expensive digital pictures of monkeys will improve the world tremendously,” said Gates, referring specifically to the NFT flagship project Bored Ape Yacht Club.

It’s not the first time Gates expressed doubts about cryptocurrency. In an interview from February 2021, he worried about the dangers of regular investors buying into Bitcoin, especially when the cryptocurrency’s value was so volatile and could be tanked on the basis of a tweet from a prominent investor, like Elon Musk.

“I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare,” said Gates in 2021. “My general opinion is that you should watch out .”

if you don’t have as much money as Elon.

Gates’ warnings of volatility were spot-on. When he was speaking in 2021, Bitcoin was surging in price and would reach a height of $63,000 in April that year. It would then slump dramatically, before rising again to an all-time high of more than $64,000 last November.

Since then, the price of Bitcoin has crashed once again, and at the time of writing is trading just above $20,000. This dramatic fall is part of a wider set of convulsions rocking the crypto world, after the collapse of so-called “stablecoin” Terra in May and the ongoing failure of crypto lending platform Celsius.

Similarly, prices for NFTs have also fallen sharply. The value of some of the most important projects, such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club have more than doubled. As buyers look for digital assets at bargain prices, the trading volume has also increased. They may have subscribed to the greater-fool theory about NFTs like Gates. If they could only find more idiots, they would be confident.