(Bloomberg) Billionaire investor Peter Thiel praised Bitcoin and U.S. President Donald Trump while criticizing big, liberal-leaning cities and Democrats during a talk at the Economic Club of New York. The Facebook Inc. board member on Thursday said Bitcoin will become more important, squeezing out Ethereum and other newer cryptocurrencies. His venture firm, Founders Fund, has been quietly buying Bitcoin since 2012 — as has Thiel who is worth more than $3 billion, according to Bloomberg estimates. Thiel compared Bitcoin to a digital version of gold and argued that the quest to amass money “is the bubble that never pops.” The housing market is another matter. Thiel, whose hedge fund Clarium Capital soared during the housing collapse and later imploded for failing to quickly spot the recovery, singled out high-priced housing as the main growth barrier for coastal startups.

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