Paul Tudor Jones says crypto is his preferred inflation hedge over gold right now

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC on Wednesday he views cryptocurrencies right now as a better hedge against inflation than gold.

“It would be my preferred one over gold at the moment,” Jones said in a “Squawk Box” interview. He added, “Clearly, there’s a place for crypto. Clearly, it’s winning the race against gold at the moment.”

Jones, a bitcoin and crypto bull, also told CNBC he’s very worried about rising inflation, saying it’s posing a major threat to the U.S. financial markets and the recovering Covid-hit economy.

“I’ve got crypto single digits in my portfolio,” Jones said, referring to the percentage of his holdings in cryptocurrencies.

Back in June, Jones told CNBC that bitcoin is a great way to protect his wealth over the long run, calling the world’s biggest crypto a store of wealth like gold.

Gold as an investment that hedges against inflation would generally rise along with the rapid growth in consumer prices. Gold lost 8% over the past 12 months compared to bitcoin’s 437% one-year gain.

Often referred to as digital gold, bitcoin was also designed as a payment system. Though adoption as money to pay for things has been slow due to the volatile nature of the digital coin.

Essentially flat earlier in the morning, bitcoin moved higher after Jones’ crypto remarks. It hit a new all-time high above $66,000 on Wednesday, rising above April’s record.

Bitcoin struggled over the summer, trading briefly below $30,000 before turning higher again in advance of the launch of the first U.S. bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF jumped 4.8% in Tuesday’s debut session and another 3% Wednesday. The ETF tracks bitcoin futures, or contracts speculating on the future price, rather than the cash price.

Jones said he’d rather own bitcoin itself than the futures-tied ETF. However, he said the ETF will do fine and investors should “take great comfort” that it’s been approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.