Virgin Galactic chairman: Buy Bitcoin and forget about it

Billionaire venture capitalist and chairman of Virgin Galactic, Chamath Palihapitiya, has just urged everybody to store one percent of their net worth as Bitcoin (BTC).

During a discussion on CNBC's Squawk Box, Palihapitiya laid out his opinion on the current state of the economy, and the potential cause behind the recent market dip—which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average fall by 900 points amid concerns surrounding the spread of the coronavirus.

The safe-haven argument

During his discussion with CNBC, Palihapitiya said that "everybody should have one percent of their assets in Bitcoin," arguing that the Bitcoin is an uncorrelated hedge against every other financial instrument.

"When you see the amount of leverage the financial industry is running, and you think about these dislocations and exogenous things that are happening that you can't predict, there is a lot of risk to the downside," he said.

But that’s not to say everyone should panic buy Bitcoin. Rather, Palihapitiya opined that investors should gradually acquire a position over some time.

"You quietly, over … time, accumulate a position and then you just never look at it again. And hope that that insurance under the mattress never has to come due, but if it does, it will protect you, because then that thing will be hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per coin," said Palihapitiya.

On Warren Buffett

American business magnate and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett is among the most disparaging Bitcoin critics. In recent years, Buffett has described it as "probably rat poison squared" and could be found bashing Bitcoin once again just days ago.

"You can’t do anything with it except sell it to somebody else,” Buffett told CNBC. “But then that person’s got the problem.” While he was recently given one Bitcoin by Tron CEO Justin Sun, he later revealed that he had given it to his preferred charity instead of keeping it.

Referring to Warren Buffet's pessimistic views on Bitcoin, Palihapitiya branded Buffet as "completely wrong and outdated on this point of view." Buffett, no doubt, disagrees.