Billionaire Oystein Stray Spetalen called bitcoin a "nonsense currency", and nine days later reportedly bought a bulk of cryptocurrency and became a shareholder of Norway's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Should you trust the words of billionaires who criticize cryptocurrencies? At the very least, their statements should be treated with skepticism. A little over a week ago, Norwegian billionaire Oystein Stray Spetalen sharply criticized bitcoin. During the conference on March 18, he called the first cryptocurrency meaningless and also noted that the cryptocurrency is causing too much harm to the environment, which is why it does not deserve support. “Bitcoin today consumes as much energy as all of Norway. It is extremely environmentally hostile. The authorities and the EU should ban it immediately. Then you’d cut CO2 emissions considerably. It's just nonsense. We’re doing well with the payment systems that are in place today.”

A week later, it became known that he not only invested in bitcoin, but also invested in Norway's largest cryptocurrency exchange. In an interview with the Norwegian media Finansavisen, Spetalen stated that he partially owns the Norwegian crypto trading platform MiraiEx.

“When the facts change, I change. I met the MiraiEx founders Thuc and Øyvind the day after the podcast was recorded, early in March, and I realized that I had been wrong. And when I also read that [industrial magnate and fellow Norwegian billionaire] Kjell Inge Røkke had got into Bitcoin, it was quite obvious. I can't bear to see that Røkke makes money and not me.”

Norwegian billionaire Rökke founded Seetee, a subsidiary of the diversified Aker ASA corporation, to trade cryptocurrencies. Rökke invested NOK 500 million in bitcoin.

Spetalen admitted in an interview that he also acquired bitcoin, but his investments are inferior to those of Rökke.