Wall Street’s Crypto King Calls Bitcoin ‘Currency of the Internet’

Wall Street’s “Crypto King” sat down with the panel on CNBC’s Fast Money to discuss Bitcoin’s utility, calling the digital coin the “currency of the internet.”

Bitcoin is the Best Crypto Investment

Bart Smith, head of digital asset trading at Susquehanna International Group, dubbed the “Crypto King” of Wall Street for his expertise on the space and his bullish attitude towards investing in cryptocurrency, was in the Fast Money guest seat again, this time to discuss the utility of Bitcoin. He told the panel that Bitcoin is still the best crypto investment as people are “functionally using”. He added,

“If you want to own the asset that you can actually use today and that people are functionally using, it’s bitcoin,”

The fast money panel threw questions at Smith about the current state of the market and seemingly stagnated price of Bitcoin as it languishes in the 6 thousand dollar range. One panelist suggested that this area may be the new norm for Bitcoin which would at least lend it some consistency as a store of value.

The price of Bitcoin is still feeling the effects of a tough spring that consisted of a prolonged bear market with mitigating factors such as the ongoing regulatory debate and several exchange hacks that have routinely brought up the issue of security. Smith though pointed out that creation of Bitcoin futures in the fall of 2017 created a premature expansion of the cryptocurrency market. He explained saying,

“people got very excited about bitcoin, they got really excited about all these other tokens and use cases. And all of the sudden you saw all of these smaller tokens, as people got excited about them, massively outperform. We got way ahead of ourselves.”

Bitcoin has Established Utility

He went on to point out the use cases that Bitcoin has created, explaining that when people in the US buy cryptocurrency they generally use dollars, but in other country’s, they buy with Bitcoin which has made it the “reserve currency of crypto”.

Beyond its role as the reserve currency of crypto, Smith went on to illustrate its use as a remittance payment method.  Talking about people working in one country and making payments back to their original place of origin he said;

“They use Western Union, traditional banks; It is slow and it is expensive, and there are people that can stop you from sending that money, whether that’s good or bad. With bitcoin, I can send money. It’s fast. It’s cheap. And frankly, no one can stop me.”

He concluded by telling the panel that because Bitcoin has established utility, it has a competitive advantage, adding that;

“If you’re looking at these other use cases, smart contracts, or lightning network or these different technological advancements, I think people are coming to realize, those things are very difficult and aren’t coming anytime soon,”

 

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