Litecoin creator Charlie Lee is sharing his views on the great Bitcoin debate of 2019.
In a new interview, Lee says he thinks Bitcoin’s halving, which will lower the reward miners receive for powering the network in half, may have a short-term effect on the price of BTC. Lee tells The Crypto Lark he thinks Bitcoin’s price may pump leading up to the halving and then deflate after the event happens in May.
“Everyone is thinking about how [the halving] will affect the price. From my point of view, I think that, kind of like the Litecoin halving, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people think the price will go up, they will buy, which causes the price to go up. So I think we’ll see some of that play into effect, and maybe after the halving we might see people sell the news, so to speak, and you might see a dip. But who knows. I think there is going to be a lot of price action this year because of the halving, which will be exciting…
A lot of people say the halving is priced in because you know about it ahead of time. But the market is participated by humans, and humans are emotional and they try to fit patterns. With Litecoin last year, we saw the price go up quite a bit before the halving. And then after the halving, it actually dropped quite a bit. And that just happens. People were buying because they think the price will go up and after the halving happens, they just sell. We’ll see what happens with Bitcoin. It might follow the same pattern. I think it will, but who knows.”
Lee, who famously sold all of his Litecoin in late 2017 to avoid any conflict of interest, also talks about his thesis that anyone interested in investing in the dangerously volatile crypto markets should buy Bitcoin before exploring the altcoin market.
“I think for most people, they should actually invest in Bitcoin first. Bitcoin is the king of crypto. It’s more of a for sure thing. Don’t put all your money into a much more speculative altcoin that could go to zero much more easily than Bitcoin can. Similarly, I wouldn’t tell everyone to put all their money into crypto. So, same thing. You shouldn’t put all your money into an altcoin without having a decent amount of exposure to Bitcoin first.
Investing in Litecoin is more volatile than investing in Bitcoin. During the bear market, the ratio also drops, so your Litecoin hodlings drop a lot more than your Bitcoin holdings. And then during the bull market, the ratio goes up. So if you’re holding Litecoin, you’re actually making more money than when you hold Bitcoin. It all depends on when you get in.”
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