ISLAMABAD: Famous Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke and Chinese investors have openly supported Bitcoin saying this leading cryptocurrency has become inevitable now. When Elon Musk announced suspension of Tesla’s car sales in exchange for Bitcoin, Rokke, a renowned Norwegian billionaire, said his company was weighing options to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment. He said that his company was acquiring technology to make sure it accepts Bitcoin as payment as early as possible. Rokke said that Tesla CEO’s remarks about environmental hazards associated with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies would not change anything. Rokke owns a 70 percent stake in Aker ASA, a mega oil company based in Norway. Aker ASA also owns Aker BP that produces oil. Norwegian billionaire Rokke has also established a Bitcoin investment company, Seetee AS, in March 2021, with initial investment of 500 million kroner that was promoting investment and trade in Bitcoin.
Like Rokke, some Chinese investors have also announced support for Bitcoin in the wake of ongoing cold war between the United States and China over mining of Bitcoin. This unexpected development has averted further decline in value of Bitcoin that was now trading in a narrow range from $39,000 to $41,000 for the past four consecutive days. At one time, Bitcoin breached the $38,000 level this week, but it regained some value when Norwegian billionaire, Chinese investors and some other stakeholders came in support of the cryptocurrency openly. Interestingly, China has already banned trade of Bitcoin within the country. Last week China issued a warning to its citizens asking them not to be involved in trade and speculation of cryptocurrency which further put pressure on Bitcoin’s value.
However, Chinese investors have ignored this warning saying that whenever the value of Bitcoin reaches new highs, they see this kind of pressure and this happens almost every year. According to international media, Chinese investors have vowed to continue mining, trade, and investment in Bitcoin. Worth to note is that China holds about 80 percent of the global share of Bitcoin mining, but the Chinese government has banned trade of Bitcoin within the country. China, nonetheless, neither imposed a ban on mining of the cryptocurrency nor stopped exports of technology that is used for mining and trade of the cryptocurrency globally. Thus, Chinese government’s warning to its citizens about Bitcoin is being seen as “Look Busy Do Nothing Policy” by local investors and miners. For example, Linghao Bao, an analyst at a Chinese company Trivium, has pointed out that despite the ban, still Chinese investors can still find many ways to buy and sell Bitcoin and other similar currencies. Bao said China has just instructed its financial institutions and mega companies like Ali Baba not to accept Bitcoin.
Furthermore, some Bitcoin billionaires based in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe are also considering using their influence to end the US-China cold war to ensure smooth trading of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Importantly, in the last week Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have lost more than $550 billion market capitalization amid a new cold war between America and China over mining of cryptocurrency. Pro-America lobbyists are claiming that Bitcoin mining would worsen the global warming problem as it uses extensive energy. They also asserted that China was using coal-based cheap energy that pollutes environment. However, proponents of Bitcoin are of the opinion that the cryptocurrency was being utilized since 2009 and there was no justification of linking mining of Bitcoin with global warming problem at this time. The only root cause of this cold war is that 80 percent of mining of Bitcoin is controlled by Chinese now.
