Gold or Bitcoin? Alexis Ohanian talks about cryptocurrencies and his new venture company

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and currently a general shareholder in venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, gave an interview to the prestigious American magazine Forbes in which he talked about the future of cryptocurrencies, especially amid the bankruptcy of the Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX.

“You may think bitcoin is stupid, but it's just as stupid as gold,” he said, noting that if you keep your wealth in gold and can take it out of the country if you need to, with cryptocurrency it's much easier. And that's the most boring argument about why cryptocurrency, in this case bitcoin, is good, useful and safe, he said.

Alexis Ohanian said he is now focusing all of his attention on Seven Seven Six, a venture capital firm in the technology sector. Ohanian said he had always been a pragmatic proponent of crypto. About half of Seven Seven Six's portfolio is invested in cryptocurrency or blockchain technology in some way, he said.

The Reddit co-founder said Seven Seven Six is a young company, and the companies in the portfolio are also quite young. Nevertheless, the company's founders do believe they will have enough experience in the next year or two.

From a technology perspective, Ohanian said, 2023 will be a challenging year altogether, and tech CEOs will have to consider completely different scenarios to get their next investment.

“Unfortunately, as much pain as this economic uncertainty will create, the same pain will create some great companies,” he said, adding he is hopefull for these companies because they need to move people forward in space and climate technology, software and, even cryptocurrency.

Alexis Ohanian noted that he has gone through different cycles of the cryptosphere and has seen quite a few crypto winters, but he actually enjoys the opportunity to work in this field because he deals with smart, sober-minded young professionals who are much smarter because they are the first generation that grew up in this era. He also expressed the hope that young people will learn a lot from the mistakes of their generation. And he's there to help them as much as he can, he said.

Seven Seven Six's major shareholder said he considers himself very fortunate to see the progress and success of the new company over the past two years, which makes him think such an initiative should have been started earlier. But Ohanian is happy to be where he is now. “It's fun and incredibly rewarding to work there,” he said.

Alexis Ohanian also said he created the Seven Seven Six Foundation, with which he begins his philanthropic endeavors, and plans to do both capital and philanthropic endeavors for the rest of his life.