Josh Brown on Protest Assets, Bitcoin Pessimism and Possibility

11/07/19 • 20 min

Bitcoin Macro: A Pop-up Podcast from CoinDesk

Josh Brown is the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and a regular contributor to CNBC. In this episode of Bitcoin Macro, CoinDesk’s head of strategy Nolan Bauerle talks with Josh about: Why bitcoin feels like a protest asset but doesn’t see huge amounts of capital flowing into it from turbulent regions Why US dollars and assets like Manhattan real estate are still the preferred choice for moving wealth out of countries Why it’s impossible to know how bitcoin will react in a recession given the unique set of circumstances around the market’s last 11 years Why the bitcoin and crypto spaces have veered back and forth between overly optimistic and overly pessimistic Why true technology disruptions tend to happen long after their earliest promoters have left the stage Why the impact of bitcoin may be something very different than the macro, non-sovereign money narrative in favor today.

Previous Episode

Ambre Soubiran on What Makes Bitcoin Unique as a Financial Asset

Ambre Soubiran is the CEO of Kaiko, a leading provider of institutional grade cryptocurrency market data. In this episode of Bitcoin Macro, CoinDesk’s head of strategy Nolan Bauerle talks with Ambre about: The “macro” origins of bitcoin The uniqueness of a financial asset that has what amounts to a diminishing supply over the long term The shifts in the bitcoin narrative over time Why the ICO boom was a seminal moment for external markets to gain more interest in the cryptocurrency space Why the role of bitcoin as a safe haven is contextual to local politics and economics Why HODLing behavior shows the promise of bitcoin as a future safe haven The immediate-term risks to bitcoin in the case of a global recession What order book data suggests about the state of the markets.

Next Episode

Meltem Demirors on the Future Fetish and the Challenges of a New Asset Class

Meltem Demirors is the CSO of Coinshares a digital asset investment firm, and one of the most salient and prolific voices in the bitcoin space. In this episode of Bitcoin Macro, CoinDesk’s head of strategy Nolan Bauerle talks with Meltem about: Why bitcoin and crypto seems all encompassing to the people in the space, but barely registers on the radar for most investors Why bitcoin actually refers to (at least) three things at once: a technology, a network, and an asset - and why this makes categorization in traditional investment frameworks difficult Why Libra is in many ways the antithesis of bitcoin Why the US dollar remains the most desired asset in troubled regions and why part of the key for bitcoin playing a similar role is education Why speculation is a gateway for deeper engagement with bitcoin Why the bitcoin recession narrative is enticing to people but full of “unknown unknowns” How the global “hunt for yield” is shaping the bitcoin narrative The “future fetish” era of blockchains Why the idea of bitcoin as “unregulated” isn’t quite accurate The new battles around central bank digital currencies Why the most interesting metric in the crypto space is the percentage of bitcoin held by third party institutions