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Now that bitcoin has cracked the $100,000-per-token milestone, you’re probably getting texts (or sending them) asking whether it’s too late to get in, and fielding the classic taxi driver conversations about crypto.
If you’ve been paying attention during cryptocurrencies’ ascent this year, you know that the rise has been fueled by two factors: the introduction of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and Donald Trump’s election win.
Along with the price gains, the usual cast of characters has returned to tout the value of crypto. Here, then, is a handy guide to some of the biggest players and their perspectives.
Many of the fanatics dismiss the dollar as “fiat currency,” calling bitcoin “the future of money”. They refuse to acknowledge any risk whatsoever with investing in crypto, and even invoke a sort of blind faith.
A few examples: MicroStrategy (MSTR) executive chairman Michael Saylor, Ark Invest founder, CEO and CIO Cathie Wood, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. There’s also a large crop of Extremely Online influencers who are less well known outside the cryptoverse.
“You may not know the applications [for bitcoin], but there are applications. MicroStrategy makes a lot of money by holding that digital property,” Saylor told Yahoo Finance on Thursday. “We’re generating massive amounts of shareholder value from that. So you don’t have to understand how we do it. You just need to hold your bitcoin and let us drive.”
Saylor, take the wheel.
Mostly veterans of the financial industry, opportunists got on the crypto train well before its current cycle. They’re generally not bitcoin maximalists (like some of the fanatics): They retain their trader mentality when discussing crypto — including the recognition that prices fall.
A few examples: SkyBridge founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci, Galaxy Digital (GLXY.TO, BRPHF) founder and CEO Michael Novogratz. (You might well ask, “Doesn’t the guy with a cryptocurrency tattoo qualify as a fanatic?” Fair, but he has been clear that the tattoo is a good reminder to be humble in investing).
Much like religious converts, these individuals have become some of the most devoted, and most influential, figures in the industry.
Examples: President-elect Donald Trump. It’s easy to forget now (considering being a crypto ally was such a cornerstone of his campaign), but Trump hasn’t always been a fan. As recently as 2021, he told Fox Business that investing in crypto is “potentially a disaster waiting to happen.” Contrast that with his message when bitcoin hit $100,000: “CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!!”
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