finance.yahoo.com
Now that bitcoin has cracked the
$100,000-per-token milestone, you’re probably getting texts (or sending
them) asking whether it’s too late to get in, and fielding the classic
taxi driver conversations about crypto.
If
you’ve been paying attention during cryptocurrencies’ ascent this year,
you know that the rise has been fueled by two factors: the introduction
of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and Donald Trump’s election win.
Along with the price gains, the usual cast of
characters has returned to tout the value of crypto. Here, then, is a
handy guide to some of the biggest players and their perspectives.
Many of the fanatics dismiss the dollar as “fiat currency,” calling bitcoin “the future of money”. They refuse to acknowledge any risk whatsoever with investing in crypto, and even invoke a sort of blind faith.
A few examples: MicroStrategy (MSTR)
executive chairman Michael Saylor, Ark Invest founder, CEO and CIO
Cathie Wood, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. There's also a
large crop of Extremely Online influencers who are less well known
outside the cryptoverse.
"You may not know the applications [for bitcoin], but there are
applications. MicroStrategy makes a lot of money by holding that digital
property," Saylor told Yahoo Finance on Thursday. "We're generating
massive amounts of shareholder value from that. So you don't have to
understand how we do it. You just need to hold your bitcoin and let us
drive."
Saylor, take the wheel.
Mostly
veterans of the financial industry, opportunists got on the crypto
train well before its current cycle. They’re generally not bitcoin
maximalists (like some of the fanatics): They retain their trader
mentality when discussing crypto — including the recognition that prices
fall.
A few examples: SkyBridge founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci, Galaxy Digital (GLXY.TO, BRPHF) founder and CEO Michael Novogratz. (You might well ask, “Doesn’t the guy with a cryptocurrency tattoo qualify as a fanatic?” Fair, but he has been clear that the tattoo is a good reminder to be humble in investing).
Much
like religious converts, these individuals have become some of the most
devoted, and most influential, figures in the industry.
Examples:
President-elect Donald Trump. It’s easy to forget now (considering
being a crypto ally was such a cornerstone of his campaign), but Trump
hasn’t always been a fan. As recently as 2021, he told Fox Business that investing in crypto is “potentially a disaster waiting to happen.” Contrast that with his message when bitcoin hit $100,000: "CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!!”
Another example: BlackRock (BLK) chairman and CEO Larry Fink, who went from “proud skeptic” to his firm operating the biggest spot-bitcoin ETF. That alignment of interests might put him in the “Opportunist” category, but these are loose terms with considerable overlap.
Vibe, as perceived by the industry: “Old man yells at cloud.”
Examples:
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, who said at this week’s New York
Times Dealbook Summit, “What I don't care for about crypto is, what
problem does it solve for our economy? ... What problem does it solve?”
Although he did say, “It may have a future.”
JPMorgan (JPM)
CEO Jamie Dimon has consistently belittled crypto, even as his bank
introduced crypto-related services and uses blockchain, the technology
that underpins bitcoin. In January, he seemed to be sick of talking about it.
It
seems clear that we won’t be getting a whole lot of holdouts in charge
of anything crypto-related under the Trump administration.
But knowing which pew in the Church of Bitcoin various incoming
officials are sitting in might be a meaningful difference between
letting crypto do its thing and giving it a boost.
