International investor Jim Rogers reportedly predicts that banks must invest in the financial technology, or “fintech,” or become outdated and replaced.
“My children will never walk into a bank when they become adults as by then all the banks along the streets will be replaced by computers and certainly mobile phones,” Crypto Coin News quoted Rogers as telling the China Daily.
Rogers reportedly has invested in Hong Kong-based ITF Corporation, the world’s first financial technology bank. Rogers has also invested in Tiger Broker, a Chinese online brokerage, Crypto Coin News reported.
Giving his view on fintech development and the changing investment environment, Rogers told China Daily: "If you find something is changing and cheap, do some research and develop it. You will probably be very rich. You will only be a successful investor by staying with what you know and finding things that you know."
Meanwhile, not everyone is so convinced about the new trend of all things digital in the financial world.
To be sure, Bitcoin is booming, digital currency hedge funds are sprouting at the rate of two a week and the value of all cryptocurrencies has surged tenfold this year to more than $170 billion.
Yet for all the hype, mainstream institutional investors are steering clear of the nascent market, taking the view that it is too lightly regulated, too volatile and too illiquid to risk investing other people’s money in, Reuters explained.
Bitcoin, the biggest and most well-known cryptocurrency, has outperformed all the world’s traditional currencies each year since 2011, except for 2014. But many investors still view it as an opaque, esoteric instrument used by gun-runners and drug-dealers on the Dark Web that should be avoided.
This year, though, a flood of new hedge funds focused on cryptocurrencies has offered institutional investors who might be unfamiliar with the market a potential route into the world of digital currencies.
According to Autonomous NEXT, a financial technology research house, 84 so-called crypto hedge funds have been launched this year, taking the total to 110 with about $2.2 billion in assets altogether.
But the fact most of the funds are relatively small with a limited track record - and that cryptocurrency price swings have been so pronounced - means the world’s pension funds, insurance companies and large mutual funds are staying away.
“While cryptocurrencies are probably here to stay, they are difficult to analyze, wildly volatile and some may be prone to fraud,” said Trevor Greetham at Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), part of the Royal London life insurance company.
(Newsmax wires services contributed to this report).
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.