Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland, Julie Hyman and Brian Sozzi discuss the rise of bitcoin, Fed Chief Powell’s comments, and US unemployment claims.
Video transcription
MYLES UDLAND: Okay, now let’s turn our attention to what’s happening in the markets. Yesterday we saw the S&P close a fraction of a record high. But Julie, I think we should start with what’s going on in the coins.
At night, while we slept, as a snow storm invaded our space here in the New York metro area, $ 23,000 for Bitcoin, and I think I keep talking to animal spirits in the market and certainly renewed enthusiasm when it comes to crypto assets .
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, I mean, you can choose the blizzard as the reason. That would be just as good as any other when it comes to the gathering here at these levels. It’s hard to find much bearish sentiment when you look at the commentary surrounding Bitcoin. I mean, I saw some of David Rosenberg’s comments this morning about Gluskin Sheff being bearish, but he tends to be bearish on many different things.
But there is a lot of enthusiasm. What we keep hearing from Bitcoin enthusiasts, as well as people who are more or less agnostic about Bitcoin coming on the show, and whether this is true or whether it’s just some sort of conventional wisdom feeding itself, is that more and more institutions Getting involved with cryptocurrency in general, and Bitcoin probably most specifically, it is clear that it is the most prominent cryptocurrency.
And that also seems to feed the beast. I mean, when you hear people like Scott Meynard of Guggenheim talk about $ 400,000 as the ultimate level for Bitcoin, I don’t know where you’re going and if that means there’s so much enthusiasm going higher or the opposite.
BRIAN SOZZI: Really, and that’s an important point here, Julie, comparing and contrasting, 2017, that Bitcoin surge feels like yesterday to me. But nonetheless, that was really powered by a bunch of, say, 17-year-olds in their underwear in their parents’ basement who went out and speculated on Bitcoin.
So far, there is a lot of institutional purchases here at the moment. You just brought up MassMutual and made a commitment to buy $ 100 million worth of Bitcoin. That is a big signal to the markets. And this JPMorgan note continues to float around street trade counters.
They see $ 600 billion worth of crypto, the value of Bitcoin demand, possibly if more institutions come into play. You had MassMutual. You also have PayPal. PayPal continues to buy much of the cryptocurrency in the markets to support its ambitions in the space.
MYLES UDLAND: You know, that little head …
JULIE HYMAN: How many crypts – how much Bitcoin even, guys?
MYLES UDLAND: Go ahead.
JULIE HYMAN: What is Bitcoin’s offer at the moment?
MYLES UDLAND: It’s like 21 – it’s like 21 million and some change, because remember a few weeks ago when Bitcoin went low 19? It was technically a record of market cap, as a few incremental coins had been made. Of course, the offer is not necessarily static, but each individual addition to the blockchain, the Bitcoin blockchain, is more expensive.
But if the price rises, you will be incentivized to continue mining the Bitcoin as much as possible. But in the end, I don’t think there will come a point where you will encounter a new oil reserve of Bitcoin or anything like that in the natural resource space.
But going back to the miners’ comment, I loved it because we all remember that the consensus in 2017 was a combination of disdain for Bitcoin or I’m interested in blockchain, but I don’t know about Bitcoin. But now, it’s clearly the career risk for Scott Meynard – and he doesn’t really need more success in his career – but it’s gone the other way.
You might as well throw a big Bitcoin price target, instead of appearing like a crank. There is no risk of just saying something bullish. I think there is a lot more risk when you say something bearish and then get calls like, what don’t you idiots understand about Bitcoin? It’s the future, all these other things. And it’s interesting how it turned out.
BRIAN SOZZI: Myles, when will the Fed start buying Bitcoin? When do they enter this market?
MYLES UDLAND: See, here we go. Now we are working on that. We are at that point of talking. So you know, I think everything ends up being a Fed conspiracy, Sozzi. Live long enough and you will become part of a Fed’s liquidity facility in an emergency. I think maybe we’ll see that during the next recession.