Bill Gates is obviously a very intelligent man, however, like anyone who is successful, its easy for him to speak about subjects with the presumption of expertise (and for others to believe his opinion has weight) when really he's no more of an expert in this area than anyone else who has a passing familiarity with crypto. Its like when a doctor speaks about the stock market and other people think that his opinions are inherently noteworthy because of his perceived intelligence - they fail to realize that specialized knowledge in one field, which may itself be an indicator of great intelligence, means nothing when it comes to another field which requires just as much specialization to understand. So that said, Bill Gates can say whatever he wants about crypto, but as someone who is not active in the space, I could honestly care less what he's thoughts on the subject are.