Nithin Kamath says trend of celebs peddling cryptos 'quite disgusting'

NEW DELHI: Recently, many celebrities and businesspeople have been encouraging investors to bet on cryptocurrencies without warning them about the risks associated with investing in this asset class, a trend that Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath finds "quite disgusting".

“Watching famous personalities with huge fan followings trying to trigger their fans or retail investors to invest in super risky asset classes without talking about the risks, or caring about the risk profile of those who follow them is quite disgusting,” said Kamath in a tweet on Thursday.

“Thanks to Crypto, it's been a case of "never meet your heroes,” with so many people I admired (sic) for peddling crypto, NFTs, etc. as safe & guaranteed. Nothing against Crypto, it would have been the same if stocks or even AAA-rated debt was peddled as being safe & guaranteed,” he added.



Although it was not clear who Kamath directed his tweets at as there are hundreds of Twitter accounts with blue ticks that regularly post in support of cryptocurrencies, without outlining the risks. One of the most famous among them is Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Musk is a known proponent of Dogecoin and Bitcoin. His tweets in support of them usually result in a massive rise in their prices.

Cryptocurrency, meanwhile, is an inherently volatile asset class, with wide fluctuations seen in the prices of many tokens on a daily basis. Bitcoin on Friday slumped as much as 5 per cent to its lowest since late September, tumbling under $41,000 amid a broader sell-off for cryptocurrencies.