Cryptocurrency Price Forecast: Billionaire CEO Uncovers Surprising Connection Between Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Facebook, and Tesla
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency speculation have skyrocketed this year as financial apps add crypto support and stimulus money floods in.
Through 2021, the bitcoin price has risen in lockstep with so-called meme stocks Tesla, Gamestop, and AMC, though other technology stocks such as Facebook have also risen as investors pour money into technology companies.
Following the imposition of trading restrictions on certain stocks in an attempt to restore market stability, “hundreds of millions of dollars” poured into the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin, according to the billionaire CEO of crypto exchange FTX—who has predicted a “convergence” between “crypto and the mainstream.”
“There are tens of thousands of people interested in both crypto and stocks,” Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO and founder of FTX, told Laura Shin on her Unconfirmed podcast. “The moment a group of brokers, including Robinhood, prohibited the purchase of Gamestop, hundreds of millions of dollars poured into dogecoin in less than an hour. And it was simply a very strong indication that it was the same people.”
In January, trading platform Robinhood restricted the purchase of Gamestop stock after internet users banded together against hedge fund short sellers betting on the company’s price falling.
“The same people who purchased Gamestop also purchased dogecoin,” Bankman-Fried explained. “And, frankly, I believe that the same people who bought Tesla and Facebook also bought bitcoin and ethereum.”
Robinhood is one of a slew of stock trading and finance platforms, including PayPal, that have recently added support for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Robinhood revealed last week in its prospectus for its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) that cryptocurrencies accounted for 17% of its transaction-based revenue in the first three months of the year, with dogecoin accounting for 34% of that total.
Dogecoin, which was created in 2013 as a “joke,” has soared in value since January to become one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization of approximately $37 billion. By comparison, bitcoin currently has a market capitalization of around $650 billion.
“I believe we’re seeing increasing convergence as crypto approaches the mainstream and the mainstream approaches crypto,” Bankman-Fried said, adding that people are increasingly interested in “trading both stocks and crypto.”
Bankman-Fried named dogecoin the “asset of the year for 2020 and 2021” last month.
