Bitcoin may have a small place in an investment portfolio, but the many tens of thousands of meme coins amount to “outright gambling”, according to Adam Yates, head of distribution at Peregrine Capital, South Africa’s oldest private hedge fund manager.
Speaking at The Moneyweb Summit on investment opportunities for 2026, Yates said the bigger opportunity lies in blockchain technology, a decentralised ledger, will in time be used in most financial institutions.
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Yates said he has a small position in Bitcoin personally, being the most established cryptocurrency, but he didn’t invest in the broader, less-regulated cryptocurrency market.
Bitcoin and gold
On the question of not being able to value Bitcoin – of which only 21 million coins will ever be issued — he said society gave gold, Bitcoin and even paper currency their value.
“If you look at it philosophically, gold has absolutely no intrinsic value. We as humans give it [gold] value, exactly the same way, we as humans, give currency value.
“So I think the argument for gold and the argument for Bitcoin are quite similar in that the only value they provide to society is as a scarce asset,” Yates said.
