‘Bitcoin ETF Isn’t As Important As People Often Claim’: Morgan Creek Founder
Mark Yusko's $400,000 Bitcoin price target is incredibly bold, but it's not insane. | Sourc:e: YouTube
Morgan Creek Capital founder and bitcoin bull Mark Yusco has downplayed the importance of a much-anticipated bitcoin ETF approval to the growth of crypto markets, describing it as merely a one of a number of gateways for potential investors to enter the crypto market.
He made the remarks while speaking on September 6 at the Digital Assets 101 Webinar organized by CityBlock Capital. Also in attendance at the event were Tatiana Koffman, Chief Token Officer, Full Cycle Fund; Anthony Pompliano, Founder and Partner; Morgan Creek Digital; Nikhil Kalghatgi, Founder and Partner, CoVenture Crypto; Rob Nance, Managing Partner, CityBlock Capital; Jon Avidor, Managing Partner, CityBlock Capital, and Ateet Ahluwalia, Managing Director, CoVenture Crypto.
‘Not as big as people make out’
In August, CCN.com reported that Yusco, traditionally one of the most bullish bitcoin investors predicted that bitcoin could fall to as low as $3,000 before starting a recovery.
In a Q&A session at the event, CCN.com asked Yusco and Rob Nance for their opinion on the much-talked-about bitcoin ETF and its potential impact on crypto trading and adoption.
Responding, Yusco – who is raising capital for a $500 million cryptoasset hedge fund – said that while an ETF may be useful as a means of providing access to digital assets for institutional investors, its importance pales in comparison to that of large scale adoption of cryptos through the growth of crypto exchange platforms like Coinbase.
He said:
“ETF isn’t as big a deal as some people often make it out to be. A bigger deal for me would be the growth of a company like Coinbase. That’s the sort of adoption that we want to see. [The goal is] to get institutional investors comfortable with crypto as an asset class or an access class. I think it is a way to gain access to digital assets.”
Giving his thoughts on the issue Nance added:
“I predict that the first ETF will be an entirely futures driven product. For the underlying value of crypto to grow, unlike with gold, we will require a tremendous amount of capital coming into the market, which means we will need more than just an ETF.”
Crypto Business Models and SEC Regulatory Ambiguity
Giving his thoughts earlier in the event, Nikhil Kalghatgi remarked that in his opinion, only two successful business models exist within the crypto space. The first he said, is crypto trading such as that companies like Coinbase and Binance facilitate and derive value from. The second is crypto infrastructure, such as with mining rig manufacturers like Bitmain and Canaan.
According to him, when he analyzes the market, the potential for a “moonshot” is present is what he described as “picks and shovels businesses”.
In his words:
“If you think about “What’s the moonshot there?” it’s actually the picks and shovels businesses. I think of 5 or 6 different theses there where I haven’t seen the companies yet get to 5, 10, 15, 100 million bucks of revenue, but I think it’s going to happen over the next year or two.”
Giving her opinion on the regulatory environment for new ICOs, Tatiana Koffman stated that staying on the right side of the law does is “not that difficult” because SEC laws are not as ambiguous as they are made out to be”.
Her advice to ICOs was to ensure that they issue the correct type of token that suits their business model so as to avoid regulatory conflicts with the SEC.
The full webinar is available here .
Featured image from Youtube/Asset TV U.S. .
