Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates blasted cryptocurrency projects such as nonfungible tokens as shams “based on the greater fool theory,” at a climate conference on Tuesday, echoing previous attacks on digital assets.

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“Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely,” Gates remarked sarcastically during a TechCrunch event in Berkeley, California. He stated that he is neither long nor short in the asset class.

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Gates has previously mocked cryptocurrency, arguing with Elon Musk last year over whether bitcoin is too risky for individual investors and the environmental damage caused by mining cryptocurrencies.

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Gates mentioned the problem of getting Silicon Valley engineers to work in businesses like chemicals and steel manufacturing that need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a speech on Tuesday as the founder of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the climate-focused fund he founded in 2015.

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Bitcoin fell more than 15% on Monday and another 5.4% on Tuesday, part of a larger crypto sell-off fuelled by higher-than-expected US inflation and the suspension of withdrawals by lending site Celsius. Popular NFT collections, such as the celebrity-favoured Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), have also taken a nosedive.

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Gates further backed digital banking initiatives he’s supported through his philanthropic institutions, calling them “hundreds of times more efficient” than cryptocurrencies.

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This year’s greatest drop in the global cryptocurrency market has occurred. The whole cryptocurrency market cap has dropped below $1 trillion. The price of the biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), has also plummeted, plunging as low as $20,950 in a major slump prompted by a variety of concerns.

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The crypto market cap reached $3 trillion for the first time in November of last year, spurred mostly by Bitcoin, which reached an all-time high of $69000.