Legendary American investor Jim Rogers has long advocated cash holdings given the potential for a market crisis due to US national debt.
But the currency he would hold might be the Chinese yuan rather than the US dollar, if the former were fully convertible, the veteran investor said in an interview at an investor event in Hong Kong on Saturday.
The remarks came at a time when the 83-year-old billionaire was planning to sell some equities and buy up cash, as he worried about an “extremely bad” crash following a rare long rally across global markets.
The US dollar will get overvalued, and I have to figure out where to go next. In theory, it should be the renminbi
Jim Rogers, Rogers Holdings
However, the US dollar might not be the destination, said Rogers, who is well known for predicting the global commodities rally in 1999 and was also a former business partner of investor and philanthropist George Soros.
“The US dollar will get overvalued, and I have to figure out where to go next. In theory, it should be the renminbi,” he said, adding that restrictions on the Chinese currency remained an obstacle.
Rogers also believed the Chinese yuan would be fully convertible in the future, as the size and scale of China’s economy left “huge pressures” on the country’s money flow.
Before the Chinese yuan is fully convertible, Rogers said he would continue to purchase US dollars, despite repeatedly warning that the United States was now the world’s largest debtor nation, whose national debt had accumulated to nearly US$40 trillion.
“[The US dollar] is not (a safe haven), but people think it is. Therefore, I put my money in US dollars,” explained the veteran investor.
Despite the recent rebound, the US dollar index has fallen at least 8 per cent since January 2025, while banks like Pictet predicted the American currency would continue to depreciate over the next decade. The Chinese yuan, by contrast, has strengthened against the US dollar nearly 4 per cent so far this year.
Meanwhile, Rogers said he might have to sell his Chinese shares “soon”, as they had been “going up a lot” recently, without elaborating on either the growth or the size of his holdings.
But he remained confident about China’s economic prospects and that “China will be on top again” in his lifetime and that of his children’s. He also told the audience several times at Saturday’s event to teach their children Chinese.
Rogers has long been known for his optimism about China’s rise, claiming that he first bought Chinese equities in 1988. Last year, he said that he had sold his US stocks, as the US might face “the worst crisis” in his lifetime given the staggering government debt and the rare long bull run of the stock market.
Also in 2025, Rogers said only equities in China and another country were left in his portfolio, preferring sectors including tourism, hotel and infrastructure in China, before revealing in January of this year that the rest of his investments were in Uzbekistan.
The US billionaire said on Saturday that he would not sell his shares in Uzbekistan as the Central Asian country has rich reserves in natural resources and a large educated population. But he said in an interview that his holdings there were “not many”.
Despite the recent rally in the US stock market, Rogers also remained concerned about a potential crash, which would be “extremely bad”.
And if the US enters into a big bear market, Rogers warned that Hong Kong – which he loves and has invested in for decades – could be affected “badly”.
“Just be worried, be prepared,” Rogers told the audience. “Because people can survive bad times. But the next time we have investment market problems, they’re probably going to be the worst in your lifetime.”
Separately, Go Up Education Technology, a Hong Kong-listed company that specialises in investment education, announced on Sunday that it and Rogers had reached a preliminary consensus on potential cooperation and both would continue discussions for diverse collaboration opportunities, according to a public statement.
