Myles Udland of Yahoo Finance, Julie Hyman, and Brian Sozzi discuss bitcoin’s rise with Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network.
Video Transcript
MYLES UDLAND: We have stocks pushing to record highs. We also see crypto back. Enthusiasts nearly minutes back in a big way across the crypto space, Bitcoin trading above $ 23,000 earlier today. Joining us now to talk more about everything crypto is Alex Mashinsky. He is the CEO of Celsius Network.
Alex, Thanks for joining the program today. I’ll start with the question I’m sure you always have, which is why 2020 is different than 2017 in crypto land? Because I know people in financial markets draw those comparisons, but the crypto people have very different views on where the market is right now.
ALEX MASHINSKY: Yes, thank you for having me. Crypto is definitely having an amazing year. For a week, too, always highlights. I think, unlike 2017 where we got this mass dash through retail, so you can see and go to Google Trends and just type in “Bitcoin” and look at 2017 you will see that huge spike. You do not see that today, because it is a much wider adoption by an organization and for retail of family offices and the like. So most people already know what Bitcoin is, and they keep accumulating. And that makes a world of difference.
JULIE HYMAN: Alex, it’s Julie here. Can you kind of outline for us, and I know this is a frequently discussed discussion, but what is the purpose of Bitcoin? Like, what – you know, we had Mike Novogratz on it recently, and he said, you know, this is something that has value because we decided it did, right? And so if you are looking over the long term, what is the cause that this is something that should have value?
ALEX MASHINSKY: Right. So look, the problem we have is that all the currency, the fiat currency, the dollar, the yen, the euro are things that the government or banks continue to print, right, and continue to create them. So basically there is an unlimited supply of that currency. So what more and more people are realizing is that you need to have something that is lacking, and I think the older generation is very comfortable with gold like that insurance policy against inflation, monetary inflation. But the younger generation is looking for the digital version of it, and the digital version that has a shortage, even rarer than gold, is Bitcoin.
So, for example, the Celsius community of around 250,000 people worldwide has trusted these assets worth over $ 4 billion, and they only see them accumulate. We don’t see them selling. We don’t see them trading. They are basically still giving more and more insurance for dooms day insurance.
And Bitcoin is worth a store. That’s actually what Bitcoin’s main function is. It’s not a great form of payment. It’s not a great exchange, but worth an exceptional shop. This is the best performing asset class of the last 10 years.
BRIAN SOZZI: So Alex, you know, based on that shortage and the demand that Bitcoin is seeing now, do you think Bitcoin at $ 400,000, Bitcoin at $ 500,000 next year is a possibility?
ALEX MASHINSKY: Yes. Look, I mean, we don’t know how many sellers are at $ 25,000 and $ 30,000 and $ 50,000, so on, so we know there’s a lot of demand. Every day you hear of a reputable investor or organization that basically allocates to this new asset class. So we hear hundreds of millions of billions of dollars coming in, but what we don’t know is – we know what Bitcoin’s own supply is, Bitcoin’s inflation that is now less than 3% per annum. But we don’t know what the actual supply is going to be from sales people, because they think the price is fair value.
So if the Hodler community, the people who are actually accumulating, are going to sit on their hand and not sell anything, then we’re going to get to those price levels very quickly, but if some people decide that fair value is $ 50,000, a lot of people decide that, we’re going to start seeing resistance at those levels. So I think this year will probably end it at the $ 20,000 to $ 25,000 range. Next year it’s probably $ 30,000 to $ 35,000, and then we’re going to break out into these new high levels you’re talking about.
MYLES UDLAND: Okay. Alex Mashinsky is the CEO of Celsius Network. Alex, thank you so much for joining the program, speaking a little bit of crypto this Thursday. Have a great vacation and a great new year.
ALEX MASHINSKY: Thanks for having us.