The Compound and Friends - Why the price of Bitcoin just doubled (with Josh and Tyrone Ross)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, it's downtown Josh Brown on with Tyrone Ross. Tyrone, what's going on? Good, man. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. Of course. So you're with Noble Bridge Wealth Management. And for people that maybe aren't familiar with you yet, in addition to being a financial advisor, you're also kind of an expert in cryptocurrencies and you know the market really well. Would you say that's accurate? I'd say that's accurate? I say that's accurate. All right.

Starting point is 00:00:28 So Bitcoin has doubled year to date. We're at almost 8,000 and I think we started like at 3,800 or something in January. And for the first time last night, I was tempted to – or two nights ago, I was tempted to log into my Coinbase account to check on my coin so i wanted i wanted to get you i wanted to get you on the phone and just ask you like what in your estimation what's going on right now so again i think that what you're seeing now is a lot of people who are trying to make sense of it because again right it's it's doubled right and all of the hopium is back but i think

Starting point is 00:01:05 all you're really seeing here is a lot of people realizing that you know the larger institutions and the bigger names are starting to pay attention to crypto i believe and it's just simple you have more buyers and sellers at this point i think there was the the market got washed out it was super depressed um and then you just started to see a lot was the market got washed out. It was super depressed. And then you just started to see a lot of the news come out. And I want to back up. And I've been saying this for the last year and a half. 2018 was so great for news for the space, but it didn't get any traction because it was, you know, overall was down 80, 90 percent. So I start starting to, you know, you're starting to see a lot of that reflected in the price now. And I think, you know, a lot of lot of the announcements that were made, whether it was Fidelity or whatever,

Starting point is 00:01:48 they're actually coming to the fore now saying, yes, this is real back. So on and so forth is actually going to happen. And I think you're starting to see that reflected in the price. So, Tyrone, is it all cryptocurrencies or is this really just a Bitcoin story right now? Great question. It was just Bitcoin. just a Bitcoin story right now? Great question. It was just Bitcoin. And now you're starting to see literally in the last day or two, it's starting to, you know, Ether is starting to move as well. And you're starting to, it's starting to drag the rest of, you know, the altcoins with it,

Starting point is 00:02:16 which you haven't been seeing that usually before it was, you know, they all marched in unison. But this recent run up has been Bitcoin and the alts really haven't followed. But now you're starting to see a big move in Ether as well. So the whole space is starting to march forward. Some of the chatter that I'm seeing and hearing is that there are whales accumulating. But then other people are saying this is now institutional money coming in. Does it have to be either or is it both? And can you maybe define whales for the people listening who aren't particularly familiar with the terminology in the

Starting point is 00:02:52 crypto space? Yeah. So let's start there. So a whale is a whale is just simply the largest holders of Bitcoin that are who they call the OGs that have been, you know, around the longest and accumulated the most Bitcoin. So the whales make the biggest trades and they use, you know, some of the largest exchanges to make their trades, some OTC as well. So you're able to track their movements. Do I think that has more validity than institutions coming in? I'm still not buying that. I'm sorry. I think the institutions are still wanting to learn. I've gone to a lot of family office conferences and institutional meetups. They still want to learn. There's still a lot of uncertainty.

Starting point is 00:03:37 I'm not buying the institutional thesis, but I do think a lot of the larger holders, and if you look at all of the data overall, volume, I think two days in a row is the largest volume ever. You're starting to see new wallets. Wait, say that again. Say that again. The largest volume, the largest daily volume ever. Yeah. Two days, two days in a row.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Bitcoin had the largest volume it's ever had. Two days in a row. Back to back. volume it's ever had two days in a row back to back um which again shows that that gives more credence to the whale uh thesis as opposed to you know large institutions coming in and buying it up um so i think if you look at again if you break down all of the data i think what you're seeing with bitcoin is is all of the metrics are strong right it shows that there is a lot even from google searches right there's a lot, even from Google searches, right? There's a lot of people, the interest is there.

Starting point is 00:04:28 People want to learn about it. And then you're starting to see all the on-chain data is the largest it's ever been. So I'm leaning more towards that as opposed to institutional money. I'm not buying it. All right. So what about the idea that trade tensions between the U.S. and

Starting point is 00:04:46 China could be behind the reason why so many of the whales are back to accumulating again? I think a lot of the whales are based in Asia to begin with. Do you think there's anything to that or it's just coincidental? I think it's coincidental, right? As you always talk about, we always got to look for a reason for something, right? And it's like, you know, so that makes a little sense. But I mean, there's been times before when we've had some, you know, macroeconomic and global upheaval and Bitcoin really hasn't responded to that. I just think it's coincidental at this point. at this point. But with that said, I think one of the things that I've been doing personally has been doing a lot more research on gold and just looking at the gold markets and what that, because again, the narrative is crypto is going to be digital gold, right? And how those two markets, whether they move in unison or there's some similarities. And I think what you do see is a lot of people that are looking at what's going on and saying, OK, well, let me at least look at Bitcoin as an opportunity to hedge, right, or put a little bit of money away outside of traditional asset classes and see what happens.

Starting point is 00:05:55 So, again, I think coincidental, but I do think there is some value to that. You mentioned BAKT just now, B-A-K-K-T. And that, for people listening that aren't familiar, BAKT is literally being backed by the New York Stock Exchange's parent company, which is ISC, and then a couple of other corporations, including Boston Consulting Group, Starbucks. So that seems like it was something that was supposed to have happened last fall, the launch of that exchange, what's going on with that? So it's been getting delayed and getting delayed. And what is, what I think is positive about the delay is that they've been actually trying to make sure that it's done correctly. Right. And you saw that, you know, they've announced updates and news along the way. And then finally now that they're saying that I believe the launch is soon, the next month or another month or two. But they wanted to get the custody right, which again was a big issue.

Starting point is 00:07:09 They announced the news around the custodian and they also announced about their futures and whether it was going to be physical delivery. They got that squared away. So it was a lot of things that they needed to get clear. And I think the delay at this point is good. So, Tyrone, why is the backed exchange so important for the crypto environment? Like, why are so many people pointing to that as a major watershed event once it launches? A couple of reasons. One, because I think, as you mentioned, who backs it. Two, because they, you know, Starbucks is involved, right? Because the whole thing was that the headlines were that Starbucks would be able to now take Bitcoin for coffee, which there was an announcement on that as well. It seems to be coming to fruition.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Starbucks, Nordstrom, Whole Foods this week announced that they are going to start accepting Bitcoin or they do already actually Bitcoin payments. So that was a big thing and i think the last thing is it's simply a a a teaser to the to the institution showing him okay yeah there's actual credible resources here for you to actually transit back to custody to get best execution and a trusted source and market um that is very familiar to traditional institutions um that's why i think it's really big for, again, that part of the space, the larger institutional side. All right. So like for all the institutions that have been hesitant to really establish either positions in tokens or trading strategies, having a partner that they trust at the exchange and custodian level could kind of unlock that interest

Starting point is 00:08:46 and translate it into actual activity. Right. Right now, again, institutions, they're just not buying it. I mean, it's just too much uncertainty. And again, I was sitting with a prime broker, you know, on Monday in the city. And again, there's a lack of prime brokerage, right? Liquidity, best execution, all of these things still need to be resolved. And you know institutions are not going to move. They have too much on the line until this is completely settled, strong, clear, and backed by large branded names that everyone could trust. And that's the main thing here, trust. I totally agree with that.

Starting point is 00:09:21 We'll leave it there. Thanks, Tyrone.

The Compound and Friends - Why the price of Bitcoin just doubled (with Josh and Tyrone Ross)

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