Post-obit JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's recent comments that Bitcoin (BTC) is worthless, two well-known billionaires have leaped to its defense force — although both of them say Ether (ETH) has some fifty-fifty more than desirable properties.

During an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box on Wed, Barry Sternlicht, a co-founder of Starwood Capital letter Group, said that gold was really "worthless" and that he is hodling Bitcoin because every authorities in the "western hemisphere" is printing endless amounts of coin.

Sternlicht is estimated to accept a net worth of around $four.four billion and is known for his investments in the real estate market place via Starwood Capital Group. The investment firm was founded in 1991 and reportedly has effectually $95 billion worth of assets nether management (AUM).

Sternlicht was asked for his have on Dimon'southward reiterated skepticism over BTC being "worthless."

"Gold is kind of worthless, too, and and then is silver. I mean, they have some industrial uses, but they are minor. The reason I own Bitcoin is considering the U.Due south. government and every government in the western hemisphere is printing coin at present to the end of time," he said.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has a cyberspace worth of $four.three billion, echoed similar sentiments when he spoke to CNBC's Make Information technology on Wed. Cuban said that BTC is "better than gold" before going on to say that he thinks Ether has the "most upside" as an investment.

Despite favoring BTC over gold, Sternlicht too went on to authorize his support for Bitcoin with praise for Ether.

"Bitcoin is a dumb money, it has no existent purpose other than a store of value, and information technology'due south crazily volatile. So, Ether, I ain some of that. It's a programmable Bitcoin, and at that place are tons of other coins that are congenital on that system."

"I've become very interested in blockchain engineering science every bit a whole, and the digital ledger, which is going to change everything, we're probably in inning one," he added.

Related: Billionaire Nib Miller advocates for Bitcoin, simply doubtful on altcoins

Not every billionaire is on board the crypto railroad train, withal. Larry Fink, the chairman of the world'southward largest asset manager BlackRock ($9.4 trillion AUM), stated that he's "probably more on the Jamie Dimon camp."

"I'm not a student of Bitcoin and where it's going to go so I can't tell yous whether it's going to $80K or $0. But I do believe there is a huge role for a digitized currency," he said.