[ad_1]
Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via Getty Images
- Bitcoin is not a fad that will fade away, said Michael Sonnenshein, chief executive of Grayscale Investments.
- Investors understand that “buying Bitcoin and putting it in their wallet is a store of value, an inflation hedge, a digital gold, a digital form of money,” Sonnenshein told Business Insider.
- Investors shouldn’t get stuck with the fact that there are only 21 million Bitcoins that will ever exist, because each coin has 100 million units.
- Investors like the fact that they can buy a fraction of the coin and increase their position over time, the cryptocurrency manager pointed out.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Bitcoin is not a fad and not being able to use it to buy a cup of coffee is not a reasonable argument, according to Michael Sonnenshein, chief executive of Grayscale Investments, the largest digital currency asset manager.
The growing involvement of major players in the financial services realm “really speaks to the resilience of the asset class and validates the involvement of other people,” he told Business Insider in an interview.
Sonnenshein, whose company oversees nearly $ 11 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, said this year’s global pandemic was another key factor behind Bitcoin investments. The grayscale has seen investors with varying motivations and appetites to allocate the digital token to their portfolios this year.
Investors no longer cling to the idea that because we’re not using Bitcoin to buy a cup of coffee, it has failed as a currency, Sonnenshein said.
“I think today they understand that buying Bitcoin and putting it in their wallet means being a store of value, a hedge against inflation, a digital gold, a form of digital money that is much more suited to the digital world we live in today than it is. historical reserves of value such as gold that would certainly have been much more applicable to a world characterized by physical exchanges. They consider it one of the most important next steps in the evolution of money and what constitutes a store of value. ”
After the pandemic halted money markets earlier this year, Bitcoin’s sustained power and demonstration of resilience prove it was one of the best-performing investments, he said.
For skeptics who question the validity of the token through conventional financial institutions, he said: “Bitcoin originated outside the realm of traditional financial services, it did not originate in an arena where it had to be traded on a stock market. or that it should have been kept in the same way that stocks or bonds are. “
Read more: ‘I still think there is still a long way to go’: a cryptocurrency CEO explains why he is optimistic about Bitcoin even after its rise to $ 18,000 and shares the other cryptocurrency he thinks is here to stay
Sonnenshein thinks people shouldn’t be stuck with the fact that there are only 21 million Bitcoins that will ever be in circulation.
Each coin is divisible to eighth decimal, which means there are 100 million units within each Bitcoin. This is one of the features of the asset that investors like because they can only buy a fraction of the coin and increase their position over time, Sonnenshein said.
“When you think about how many millionaires or billionaires or even just what the global population is, there are 21 million Bitcoins times the 100 million units within each Bitcoin,” he said. “There is a chance for anyone who wants to get involved to be able to own part of the Bitcoin protocol.”
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency has had a wild ride this year. It has risen 117% so far in 2020 and its price has exploded above $ 18,000 this week.
The price began to rise in October after PayPal announced it would allow its users to buy, sell, and hold the token. Jack Dorsey’s payments firm Square invested in nearly 5,000 Bitcoins in October, US tech firm Microstrategy bought 16,796 coins, and British startup Mode also joined the frenzy. Cryptocurrency bulls say it’s only a matter of time before it’s widely adopted.
Read more: Buy these 15 cheap, unannounced stocks that will take off in 2021 as sales growth accelerates, says Jefferies
