By CCN: Didn’t the “60 Minutes” segment on bitcoin teach the mainstream media anything? New York Post columnist John Crudele is railing against cryptocurrencies. More specifically, he’s rehashing an outdated argument in an article entitled: “Bitcoin Will Soon Be Worth Zero.” His reason for sounding the alarm is simple:
“Last Thursday night bitcoin crashed by about $1,000, to around $7,000.”
Someone should break the news that $1,000 swings are typical for the emerging cryptocurrency. Not only that, but the bitcoin price has since recovered to nearly $8,000 since he published his article on Monday.
Another thorough, thoughtful analysis https://t.co/ob6xyiRx9N
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) May 21, 2019
While fear mongering isn’t good for any asset class, it’s particularly dangerous for a nascent category such as cryptocurrencies. If Crudele wants to publish an article about bitcoin, he should provide a more balanced view and get his facts straight. Not everybody is bullish on BTC, but they provide a basis for their analysis, technical or otherwise. The Post columnist simply states:
“Bitcoin will soon be worth zero. But until then criminals will still be able to use it and other digital currency to move money around the world without being caught.”
It’s true that the industry continues to battle fraud such as money laundering and exchange hacks. But regulators are cracking down and the industry infrastructure is stronger than ever. Why else would Fidelity launch a bitcoin custody business and the NYSE-backed Bakkt create a regulated bitcoin futures exchange?
Central Bankers Don’t Like Bitcoin. Really?
The other reason that he believes bitcoin is doomed is that European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said so. It’s true that Draghi doesn’t like bitcoin, but what central banker does? The mere existence of cryptocurrencies stands to threaten everything that monetary policymakers control – the flow of money in the economy.
He Picked the Wrong Year to Be Bearish
The timing of Crudele’s bitcoin hit piece is curious considering just last weekend 60 Minutes dedicated part of its show to educating viewers about cryptocurrencies. Perhaps he is trying to ride the coattails of their popularity since doing the show, but he’s going about it all wrong. Bitcoin is in the middle of a resilient bull run with both technical and fundamental signals fueling the gains. Once it surpasses the psychologically important $10,000, a new wave of FOMO, or fear-of-missing-out, is likely to hit.
Crudele has been bashing BTC since the crypto winter when the price tanked from nearly “$20,000 to $4,000 last year.” Someone might want to tell him that it actually fell further and was trading in the $3,000 range in early 2019. But that is the beauty of bitcoin – the harder it falls the bigger the rebound.
He might also like to know that the bitcoin price has climbed higher by more than 100% year-to-date. If the BTC price were headed to zero, it probably would have happened by now.
