In an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the CEO of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), led by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, Talal Ibrahim Al-Maiman noted that while they might invest in Tiktok If the USA or Trump invests in it, they will not invest in crypto as long as they cannot buy goods with cryptocurrencies.
Using Warren Buffet’s famous theory, ” You dont buy, you dont invest in what you cannot use to buy goods” . As such Al Maiman told Reuters that Kingdom Holdings has no immediate plans to invest in cryptocurrencies due to their limited adoption as a payment method.
CEO of Kingdom Holdings, Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman told Reuters that the company known for its traditional value investing strategy and its diversified portfolio of $13.6 billion in assets remains skeptical of the digital asset market.
Al-Maiman explained on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Since we can’t buy goods with cryptocurrencies, we’re not looking into them at this time.”
Although there has been ongoing speculation on social media about Saudi royal family investments in cryptocurrencies, Alwaleed has consistently expressed doubt. In 2017, the prince publicly stated that he believed bitcoin would eventually “implode.”
Kingdom Holding remains aligned with Alwaleed’s long-standing approach, favoring established sectors like finance, hospitality, healthcare, media, technology, and real estate over speculative digital assets.
However it recently invested in AI, taking part in the $6 billion Series B round of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup “xAI”, at a valuation of $24 billion.
This comes as the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region ranks as the seventh-largest crypto market globally in 2024, with an estimated $338.7 billion in on-chain value received between July 2023 and June 2024, accounting for 7.5% of the world’s total transaction volume.
While the UAE got its first regulated AED (UAE Dirham) stablecoin approved by the Central Bank of the UAE and is set to launch soon according to AE Coin’s X post.
