“The institutions are just starting to go there”

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Orlando Bravo, co-founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo.

CNBC

Orlando Bravo, co-founder and managing partner of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, says he is an investor in bitcoin and believes cryptocurrency will rise in value over the years with more institutional adoption.

“How could you not like crypto?” Bravo said at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference on Wednesday. “Crypto is just a great system. It’s frictionless. It’s decentralized. And young people want their own financial system. So it’s here to stay.”

“The underlying blockchain technology, whatever protocol or system you rely on, can be very powerful and sometimes provides better use cases than data-driven software,” Bravo said.

His private equity firm recently participated in a Series B fundraiser for the FTX Trading cryptocurrency exchange, which is valued at $ 18 billion. Bravo revealed that he has also personally invested in bitcoin.

“For me, it’s pretty straightforward. More people are going to use in the future than today, and it’s going to be more established. Institutions are just starting to go there, and once that happens, I think this will increase dramatically over the years I am very optimistic, ”Bravo said.

The price of bitcoin hit record highs earlier this year as more institutions embrace the digital token. Large financial firms like PayPaland Fidelity have dabbled in cryptocurrency while Square and MicroStrategy have used their own balance sheets to buy bitcoin. Morgan Stanley was the first of the banks to offer bitcoin funds to its clients, and Goldman Sachs quickly followed with an announcement of its own.

Yet it has been a roller coaster this year for bitcoin amid the crackdown in China, as well as pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The People’s Bank of China said last week that all crypto-related activities are illegal. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has pledged to create a set of rules to oversee volatile cryptocurrency markets.

Bitcoin last traded around $ 41,684 on Wednesday after hitting an all-time high above $ 63,000 in April.

Elsewhere, Bravo said he saw a “huge opportunity” in cybersecurity companies, adding that the valuation in the software industry was “reasonable.”

“It’s not just the threat of being hacked. In many cases, cybersecurity is what keeps corporate clients from moving faster to digital transformation,” Bravo said.

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