CoinDesk President on Bitcoin Below $70K & Current "Crypto Winter"

0:00Let's get to what's going on in the world of crypto because this is an important story We're just chatting about crypto. You saw that Bitcoin got back above 70,000 Dave LaValle's with us president of coin desk and there has been a bid while markets were selling off Or people were worried even gold was selling off Bitcoin caught a bit. Yeah, it's got back down But I saw it at 72,000. What's been going on? What's the big picture? Well look, it's like 70 to 72 70 to 75,000 range bound right now. Obviously there's a tremendous amount of You know geopolitical, you know turbulence in the market and markets any market doesn't really like uncertainty and so Bitcoin and broader crypto is the same way What I think is that this volatility is really just an indication that you know, we don't have total broad adoption yet And so it's just a really a matter of you know ensuring that there's the most broad adoption That's going to decrease the volatility, but for now I think it's actually feeling pretty good if you have a bid around 70 My last few interviews really last week or so. We're about a lot of regulations. Yeah, regulation

1:05You know yet the clarity act you have different things that have been coming through and I think there was one more sort of how to categorize stable coin yep, but the others for example, you did see Bitcoin aetherium Solana now categorizes commodity yep, why are some of these pieces of regulation important are they beneficial to crypto investors? Absolutely, it gives more certainty to the marketplace and with that certainty will increase the opportunity for the broadest You know use case for institutions and so when we saw the stable coin legislation come across the finish line All of a sudden it gave large scale institutions more comfort with you know pushing forward Their initiatives on stablecoin. It's no different than when the Bitcoin ETF got approved once the between ETF got approved You saw more asset managers come into play, but we're seeing a greater institutional adoption across the board and with that clarity act and with more You know clarity no pun intended with the infrastructure of crypto will give institutions a greater

2:06You know confidence that they can invest in in their projects look We heard a lot from BlackRock and about tokenization Yeah, and really sort of went two feet in yeah, and when you talk about institutions pretty much all the big names We know the big banks and brokerages have now made offerings Absolutely has that helped the case, but why isn't it back to a hundred thousand? I mean the greatest case for tokenization is really stable coins and you've seen a three hundred billion dollar marketplace And I think that's just the beginning and so I think in the future You know, it's a little bit hard to kind of jump to the conclusion that all value is going to be you know transacted or Communicated online just like the internet, you know made it very easy to have information pass Around the internet and so if we just suspend disbelief for a moment and we think that in the future that all value is going to be Transacted online then you realize that tokenization is really going to be how you know value is kind of transferred digitally And I think about, you know, why isn't Bitcoin back to a hundred thousand?

3:09Yeah, you know, what is this the crypto winter? We always wait for the having we would wait for all these catalysts What's the catalyst to get this out of this range? I mean the low was 60,000 which recently It's at 69,000 now You know, what gets it to 80 90 100,000 well, I think first of all that regulatory clarity Legislative clarity and I think a lot of times the marketplace just equates the future of crypto with the Bitcoin price And I think it's a very narrow view and so I think if you kind of take a giant step back open the aperture of the camera And you realize that all values going to be transacted online that means tokenization is really going to take off Bitcoin is going to be the largest You know, representative slice of the market share of the broader crypto market So obviously the price is going to be indicative but it's really not the full picture and the future is really bright Do you feel like this is a crypto winter? Is that what they call this? Is that what this is? They call it a crypto winter. I wouldn't call it a crypto winter

4:10I would say it's a pullback in the market with a lot of uncertainty and with more, you know, Components with more clarity on the regulatory side and on the legislative side You're going to see more components in the marketplace and that'll be a stronger bid for a broader range of participants And that you'll see the volatility decrease as there's a greater and more broader adoption So, you know, we saw everything catching a bit of Ethereum, Codavid, Bitcoin, Codavid When do the factors that you're talking about happen so that we can actually get pulled up and out of the crypto winter? I mean, how quickly can this happen and turn around and be more beneficial to folks who like crypto? I mean, obviously there's a tremendous amount of activity in Washington, DC And this infrastructure bill has support both on the Senate side And the House side, it has, you know, not only by camera or support, but also has bipartisan support I think that people talk about crypto initially being a partisan issue Then they talk about it being a bipartisan issue And now I think it's a non-partisan issue which is incredibly bullish And so what you need is you need to have some regulatory clarity Which is going to happen at the CFTC and the SEC

5:12And then you need some I think the summer And you're going to have to see some legislative clarity That could happen as early as the summer I was certainly a little bit more bullish earlier in the year But we obviously have, you know, the midterms coming up And just quickly, I mean, do you need to own because they're not the same Bitcoin and Ethereum They're different And then they're so on an XRP and stablecoins Right It's confusing What do you tell folks how should they allocate so that they're covered? Right I mean, honestly, at CoinDesk indices We firmly believe that in the future You're going to need to have a benchmark for the broader market Just like you have the S&P 500 equities You know, or you have like the Nasdaq 100 for tech You know, we believe that the CoinDesk 5 and the CoinDesk 20 You're going to be actually really good benchmark for the broader market place For example, the CoinDesk 5 is the top 5 tokens by market cap That eliminates stablecoins, eliminates memes And so if you want to participate in the market You can, you know, just get the CoinDesk 5 And you can get that in access that through an ETF

6:13You know, in partnership with Grayscale So, you know, there's an opportunity to kind of participate in the broader market with the CoinDesk 5 and the CoinDesk 20 On the CoinDesk 20 side, obviously, it's 20 tokens It goes a little bit deeper into the market Right And we have a product with pro shares Well, that's good You know, it's good to tell folks what you have So they can have a variety, they can have ETFs So they're not holding everything in one, you know, space And they have a, you know, a choice And they are a little more diversified too And instead of just holding one thing It's just so great to see you, Dave It's great to see you, thanks for having me Thank you, President of CoinDesk Glad you were here because folks want to know what's next For Bitcoin and the Lights