Financial Advisor Ric Edelman Sees 'Tremendous Investment Opportunities' in Bitcoin

Financial advisor Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines and RIA Digital Assets Council, has recommended having bitcoin in investment portfolios despite the cryptocurrency’s volatility. “This is totally new and different and it’s the first genuinely new asset class in about 150 years,” he said, emphasizing that “It has tremendous investment opportunities.”

Ric Edelman Sees Benefits of Having Bitcoin in Portfolios

Ric Edelman talked about bitcoin and cryptocurrency investments in an interview with Yahoo Finance last week. He founded Edelman Financial Engines and RIA Digital Asset Council. He is also the author of several personal finance books and the host of a weekly personal finance talk radio show called The Ric Edelman Show.

Edelman explained that “most financial professionals,” who have been in business a long time and are “very successful, very talented, and experienced,” are missing out on opportunities from the new asset class because they do not have a good understanding of cryptocurrency, like bitcoin. “The more talent you have, the more professional designations, the more college degrees in this space you have, the more difficult it is to get your head around bitcoin.”

Noting that he uses “bitcoin as a proxy for all digital assets,” the financial advisor emphasized, “It’s important to recognize this is a completely new and different asset class that doesn’t have anything in common with anything else we’re familiar with: stocks, bonds, real estate, oil, gold, commodities.” He further opined:

This is totally new and different and it’s the first genuinely new asset class in about 150 years … It has tremendous investment opportunities.

Regarding how one should invest in bitcoin, Edelman said, “It’s time to get off zero.” He stressed: “We need to recognize that bitcoin and digital assets are non-correlated assets” to traditional investments, like stocks and bonds, making them an “ideal addition to a diversified portfolio … You lower the risk while giving yourself the opportunity to improve returns.”

Recently, famed hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones also said that he likes bitcoin as a portfolio diversifier. He recommends putting 5% of portfolios in the cryptocurrency.

Edelman acknowledged that bitcoin’s price is volatile and unpredictable. However, he sees enough upside potential in a 1% or 2% allocation in most portfolios. “This can be a materially beneficial way to improve your overall returns over the long term,” he detailed, emphasizing that “it does not take much to have a material impact on your investment portfolio.”

The financial advisor also commented on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). He said blockchain technology, digital assets, NFTs, CBDCs, and tokens are “the most impactful commercial innovations since the development of the internet itself.” He exclaimed: “This is huge. It’s going to have a tremendous impact on global commerce.”