Binance US CEO Catherine Coley joined CNBC’s Power Lunch on Wednesday to discuss the current state of Bitcoin (BTC) and the greater altcoin markets.
The Bitcoin boon in 2020 has lifted BTC to its highest levels since October, cracking $10,000 after starting the year around $7,245. While investors and traders eye a return to the cryptocurrency’s all-time high of $20,000, set in December of 2017, Bitcoin’s 11-year price action remains marked by a series of dramatic highs and lows.
Looking at the wide disparities between Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Litecoin price action, with the cryptocurrencies posting year-to-date gains of 30%, 99%, 42% and 65%, respectively, Coley, who highlights a potential divide in the utility of Bitcoin and XRP, says the use cases for each asset varies.
“We can’t necessarily paint with a broad stroke why Bitcoin would be rallying and why XRP would be rallying in the same case. You’re going to see a divergence between certain coins, but also an overall all-tides-rise effort when we see an activity towards Bitcoin and the rest of the digital asset market…
You’ve got a store of value component with Bitcoin where people are seeing this as almost a flight to safety or a flight for sovereignty for their sake. So when geopolitical situations become concerning, you’re going to want to be able to hold your own assets and access those at any time 24/7. That’s going to be a different case and scenario for something like XRP which is really going to be useful for cross-border transactions, instantaneous settlements and moving funds across borders.”
Despite the roller coaster ride for investors, Coley points to financial inclusion as a key selling point for crypto.
“Financial inclusion is a huge asset for digital assets to bring forward. The idea of equalizing the access you can get through platforms like Binance US and others, allowing people to trade and access these markets 24/7 from their phones, really makes it easy – education converts into an actual trading situation. We’re seeing that education – steps take place. And that’s something that I think we’ll see continuing this year.”
In addition, Coley says a number of headlines in early 2020 show US regulators are becoming increasingly comfortable with the technology.
“You saw Grayscale get that clearance through from regulators. You also saw [SEC Commissioner] Hester Peirce put forward her proposal for an increased regulation around allowing for new activities to take place with kind of a three-year benchmark.
Seeing these changes is really an important thing – to see the evolution take place and see America lead that charge.”
Shortly after the segment wrapped, the king coin took a nosedive, sliding from $10,195 to $9,591, at time of writing.
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