On Friday (22 June 2018), Melissa Lee, the host of CNBC’s Fast Money show, whilst wearing a somber black dress, said during one segment that Bitcoin’s price dropping to around $6,000 had made them pause and wonder if the show should still be covering Bitcoin:

“Should we continue to cover Bitcoin? And the answer, sadly, is no. So today we are having a funeral for Bitcoin.”

She then proceeded to hold a mock funeral for Bitcoin and started her eulogy during which she used a set of screen captures from previous episodes where various people, including one of the show’s own hosts, hedge fund manager Brian Kelly, had made quite bullish predictions about Bitcoin. However, before she could the last sentence of her eulogy, her colleague Brian Kelly could not contain himself any longer and interrupted her:

“Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! I mean, listen, I've got a couple of things I want to say here. This is not the funeral for Bitcoin whatsoever.”

Kelly explained that there were three reason why believed in a  “Bitcoin Resurrection”:

  • Negative sentiment seems to be approaching new lows, which if you believe in contrarian indicators, might suggest that this might be a good to buy Bitcoin. Or as legendary U.S. investor Warren Buffett once said: “As an investor, it is wise to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
  • Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), slapping six Japanese crypto exchanges with business improvement orders (with regard to preventing money laundering) was a good thing because whilst it would create some short term pain (in that some people would not be able to open new accounts under the new guidelines), in the long term, better run, more robust exchanges there would boost investor confidence and help the overall crypto market.
  • The Tokyo District Court halting Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy proceedings and starting a civil rehabilitation process would mean that creditors would be repaid from Mt. Gox’s remaining assets (around 170,000 Bitcoin, worth at $1 billion at current prices), but in Bitcoin (and not Japanese Yen) — which should mean much fewer large Bitcoin sell-offs — and the creditors being repaid early to mid 2019 gives the Bitcoin market a chance to breath.

He continued to say that although Bitcoin’s price has dropped by around 70% since its all time high in December 2017, this kind of correction was not so unusual for Bitcoin, and that people should remember where Bitcoin’s price was a year ago: $2500.

 

Featured Image Credit: Photo by “David McBee” via Pexels; licensed under “CC0”