This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking Bitcoin (BTC-USD) with Dan Held, an old hand in cryptocurrency, who is currently growth head at crypto exchange, Krakenfx.
Held has been in Bitcoin since it was $10, so what does he think about this year's run that has taken its value north of $18K, and how does it differ from the crypto's other major bull markets? Institutional acceptance of Bitcoin is the key, says Held, noting not just hedge fund legends like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller as new hodlers (particularly Jones), but Rick Riedler, the CIO of fixed income for the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock.
One hedge funder not yet convinced is Ray Dalio, who is of an open mind on Bitcoin, but wonders if governments could just ban it at some point. "You can't kill an idea," says Held, who addressed that very issue in a tweetstorm late last week. The very nature of Bitcoin and de-centralization, he says, makes it highly difficult for governments to outlaw it, even if they wanted to. Held suspects that if Dalio takes the time to further study Bitcoin, he'll become as big of a fan as some of his institutional brethren.
Held also addresses Bitcoin as "Gold 2.0," i.e. similar but way better than gold (XAUUSD:CUR) in terms of being a hedge against money printing and an overreaching government. He reminds that Bitcoin's supply can never exceed 21M - increasing prices may result in increased attention, but it doesn't result in boosted supplies. The exact opposite is the case with gold - higher prices almost assuredly bring about higher supplies. Also, Bitcoin by its nature can be explicitly verified with very little effort. Gold? Do you fancy carrying a spectrometer around? Never mind the ease with which Bitcoin can be held in our own personal custody and transported.
There's plenty more, including a discussion of Ethereum (ETH-USD), the "religion" of Bitcoin and why it's a good thing, and Held's thoughts on Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
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