The Saudi investor takes JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's view of the cryptocurrency over that of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's. And he didn't mince any words, comparing Bitcoin's inflated value to Enron's.
Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said that Bitcoin will "implode" and that he agrees with Jamie Dimon that Bitcoin is a fraud, during a interview on CNBC's Squawk Box this Monday.
"It just doesn't make sense," Alwaleed said. "This thing [Bitcoin] is not regulated, it's not under control, it's not under the supervision of any central bank."
"I just don't believe in this Bitcoin thing," he continued. "I think it's just going to implode one day. I think this is Enron in the making."
Alwaleed referenced the Enron scandal, in which the company reached dramatic heights, with a peak of $90.75, only to collapse to $0.67 a share by January 2002 after declaring bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.
Bitcoin has become become impossible to ignore as the cryptocurrency has hit a new high this weekend surpassing $6,100 with a market cap of $98 billion. But its Icarian heights have some cynics wary of a bubble.
Saudi Monetary Authority Tweets Warning in July, But Is There an Agenda?
In July, the Saudi Monetary Authority warned about dealing with Bitcoin because the digital currency - which is not supervised by the government - might have negative consequences on individuals' investments. Alwaleed runs the Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding," which includes such investments as Citigroup (C - Get Report) , Apple (AAPL - Get Report) and Twitter (TWTR - Get Report) .
But billionaire investors may have agendas.
"When U.S.-dollar billionaires start mentioning Bitcoin as a 'scam' it could betray their concern that this is a new asset they may have discarded at first and now has the potential to represent a viable alternative to the U.S. dollar, the currency in which they hold most of their assets, stocks and commodities," said Eddy Travia, CEO and co-founder of the London-listed Coinsilium Group Limited,