Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland, Julie Hyman, and Brian Sozzi discuss bitcoin’s rise with Alex Mashinsky, Celsius Network CEO.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: We've got stocks pushing to record highs. We also see crypto back. Near records enthusiasm is back in a big way across the crypto space, Bitcoin trading above $23,000 earlier today. Joining us now to talk more about all things crypto is Alex Mashinsky. He is the CEO of Celsius Network.

Alex, Thanks for joining the program today. I'll begin with the question I'm sure you get all the time, which is why 2020 is different than 2017 in crypto land? Because I know folks in financial markets are drawing those comparisons, but the crypto people have a very different view on where the market is at this time around.

ALEX MASHINSKY: Yeah, thanks for having me. Crypto is definitely having an amazing year. What a week, also, all time highs. I think that unlike 2017 where we had this mass dash by retail, as you can see if you go to Google Trends and just type "Bitcoin" and look at 2017 you'll see that huge spike. You don't see that today, because it's a much broader adoption both from institution and for retail from family offices and so on. So most people already know what Bitcoin is, and they're just continuing to accumulate. And that makes all the difference.

JULIE HYMAN: Alex, it's Julie here. Can you sort of outline for us, and I know this is a discussion that is had frequently, but what is Bitcoin for? Like, what-- you know, we had Mike Novogratz on recently, and he said, you know, this is something that has value because we've decided that it does, right? And so if you're looking over the long term, what is the case that this is a thing that should have value?

ALEX MASHINSKY: Right. So look, the problem we have is that all the currencies, the fiat currencies, the dollar, the yen, the euro are things that the government or the banks continue to print, right, and continue to create. So there's basically unlimited supply of those currencies. So what more and more people are realizing is that you need to have something that has scarcity, and I think the older generation is very comfortable with gold as being that insurance policy against inflation, monetary inflation. But the younger generation is looking for the digital version of it, and the digital version that has scarcity, even more scarce than gold, is Bitcoin.

So for example, the Celsius community, which is about 250,000 people worldwide, has entrusted us with over $4 billion worth of these assets, and we just see them accumulate. We don't see them selling. We don't see them trading. They just keep basically putting more and more insurance for doomsday insurance.

And Bitcoin is store value. That's really what the main function of Bitcoin is. It is not a great form of payment. It is not a great medium of exchange, but it's an exceptional store value. It's the best performing asset class in the last 10 years.

BRIAN SOZZI: So Alex, you know, just based on that scarcity and the demand Bitcoin is seeing now, do you think Bitcoin at $400,000, Bitcoin at $500,000 next year is a possibility?

ALEX MASHINSKY: Yeah. Look, I mean, we don't know how many sellers there are at $25,000 and $30,000 and $50,000, so on, so we know there's a lot of demand. Every day you hear about a famous investor or an institution that basically allocates to this new asset class. So we're hearing hundreds of millions of dollars of billions of dollars coming in, but what we don't know is-- we know what the supply of Bitcoin itself is, the inflation of Bitcoin which is now less than 3% a year. But we don't know what the supply that's going to come from people who are actually selling, because they think the price is fair value.

So if if the Hodler community, the people who actually accumulate, is going to sit on their hand and not sell anything, then we're going to get to those price levels very, very quickly, but if some people decide that fair value is $50,000, a lot of people decide that, we're going to start seeing resistance at those levels. So I think this year is probably going to end it at this $20,000 to $25,000 range. Next year probably $30,000 to $35,000, and then we're going to break out to these new high levels that you're talking about.

MYLES UDLAND: All right. Alex Mashinsky is the CEO of Celsius Network. Alex, thanks so much for joining the program, talking a little bit of crypto on this Thursday. Have a great holiday and a great new year.

ALEX MASHINSKY: Thanks for having us.