Bill Gates: Why I Don't Own Any Cryptocurrency

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is not a fan of cryptocurrencies.

Gates, now the world's fourth-richest person with a fortune of $125 billion, said on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything " forum on Thursday that he does not own any digital currencies.

“I like to invest in things that have value. Companies are worth how well they make great products, but crypto is only worth what someone thinks someone else will pay for it, so it doesn’t contribute to society like other investments do.”

Gates has previously Bitcoin has expressed some skepticism. In an interview with Bloomberg in February, the billionaire expressed concerns about ordinary people getting caught up in the Bitcoin craze, and he may have a point. Since the collapse of the stablecoin TerraUSD last week, the cryptocurrency market has been in free fall, dragging down other digital currencies with it. This month, Bitcoin is down 27%, while Ethereum fell 36%.

“If you don’t have as much money as Elon (Musk), you might want to be careful,” he said in February.

Gates touched on a wide range of topics during his "Ask Me Anything" segment. He once again dismissed a bizarre conspiracy theory that microchips could be implanted in people's heads to track them through vaccines.

"Why would I want to know where people are? What would I do with that information?" he said.

On the question of whether billionaires should pay more taxes, Gates has previously said that he would pay more taxes, but he also warned that too high tax rates could lead to more tax evasion.

“Having marginal tax rates above 60 percent usually leads to a lot of complicated avoidance if your system allows it. It’s odd that capital gains rates are lower than ordinary income rates. Estate taxes can go above 60 percent to some extent — but surprisingly few countries have them.”

Since the Q&A was conducted on Reddit, it's no surprise that someone asked about GameStop , which is the most popular stock among retail investors on Reddit.

"I've never been long or short GameStop," Gates said, though he did not respond to questions about his shorting of Tesla, which reportedly angered Musk enough to pull out of a potential philanthropic partnership with Gates.

In response to Musk's public criticism, Gates said earlier this month that shorting Tesla "has nothing to do with climate change" and stressed that there is a difference between shorting an electric car maker and shorting the entire electric car industry.