Bitcoin 2022 Conference: Crypto expert explains the ‘symbolism’ behind the ‘Miami Bull’

CoinDesk Managing Director of Global Content Emily Parker joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the new Miami Bull statue, bitcoin prices, federal regulation of cryptocurrencies, and ethereum.

影片文字轉錄稿

Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live everyone. As we can see, Miami is taking another step in trying to establish itself as the US crypto hub with Bitcoin 2022 kicking off and its new charging bull statue being unveiled. With more on this, let's welcome Emily Parker, CoinDesk's managing director of global content. So Emily, as we see here, Miami trying to raise the bar and really become the US crypto hub. What are the expectations for this Bitcoin 2022 event, and how it positions Miami in this space?

EMILY PARKER: So Miami, for a long time now, has been saying that they want to be the global center of crypto. Mayor Suarez has really established himself as a very, very prominent Bitcoin booster. One of the notable things that just came up in Miami, is that they have a statue of a Bitcoin bull, which just seems, kind of, like, very, very on brand. This bull is modeled after the charging bull, the Wall Street charging bull in New York. And I guess this is Miami's way of saying like, OK, this is a crypto bull. I suppose. So yeah, I mean, it's more of the same, but I mean, there's definitely a lot of symbolism here. Miami has been trying to attract investment, crypto investment, to attract entrepreneurs. They have been successful to some degree. Venture capital in crypto companies, Miami based crypto companies, surge between 2020 and 2021 according to the New York Times, but still lags far behind New York and San Francisco. So yeah, I mean, as a New Yorker, this is a little bit of a competition here, I think.

- We know that Miami also had major intention to not only be the first US major city to engage with cryptocurrency and welcome it with open arms, but to also use it as a mechanism that would be distributed back out to some of the residents within that city. Have we seen any updates from the mayor on those efforts?

EMILY PARKER: Yeah, I think-- I-- my impression is that there have been mixed results. You know, Miami is doing a lot in the crypto space, but, you know, again, for me, the largest thing here is, again, the symbolism. You know, Miami saying, like, we are a crypto hub. We want to attract investment, we want to attract innovation. And that's something that we're seeing spreading all over the world. In El Salvador we see that, we've seen that even in cities in Brazil, so yeah, I think it's just, kind of, more of a stance than anything else, is my impression.

- So we just saw the price of Bitcoin 43,600 at the moment, down from that high of 67,000, I believe it was, back in November. Do they need a Bitcoin crypto bear? Where is the market headed?

EMILY PARKER: Good question. So look, there are a lot of just macro events that are affecting the market, right? I mean, there's concerns over raising rates, there's a war in Ukraine, I mean, these are ongoing narratives. The fluctuations we've seen in the market over the past few days aren't that out of the ordinary by crypto market standards. We're going to see Janet Yellen making comments about crypto tomorrow that could have an impact on the market. I don't think anyone's expecting anything super dramatic to come out of these comments, but they will be comments about crypto specifically. So this is just, I think, the crypto market is just reacting to a period of general uncertainty in the world.

- And obviously, Bitcoin is the granddaddy of the crypto. So some analysts, though, are arguing, they actually had one on Twitter say the faster Bitcoin dies, the faster the crypto space can witness unprecedented growth. How much truth is there to that? Is Bitcoin's success getting in the way of the growth of the broader crypto industry?

EMILY PARKER: I mean, those are fighting words, right? I mean, there-- there's a lot of people that would vehemently disagree with that. So I don't know. I think that's just one stance, right? I mean, maybe somebody could argue that Bitcoin is taking a dominant position, but you know, I think others would say that Bitcoin is kind of leading the way in a positive sense, and that Bitcoin is sort of like the gateway to a lot of mainstream investors, right? Now, it's just so big, and it's the one that people know, and it's what's getting more mainstream investors into the market, and then once they're in the market, they start looking at other coins and diversifying their investments, right? So I think it's just, sort of, depends on like what side of the crypto world you're on whether you agree with that statement or not.

- What do you believe the next checkpoint is that crypto will need to pass through in order to unlock kind of that next level of growth?

EMILY PARKER: Great question. I mean, if we just-- anybody's guess, right, but if we look at history, a lot of what's moved Bitcoin in the past has been two main trends. One is in institutional investment. You know, when we see these big institutions getting involved, making a big statement, making a big investment, often, we'll see what appears to be an impact on the price. The other is regulatory certainty, right? So the more governments that actually-- especially big governments, right, that come in and say, like, OK, we're not ban-- not only are we not banning cryptocurrency, but we're making the rules more clear and we're setting really clear guiderails. That actually tends to have a positive impact on the price. So I'd say it would be one of those two categories. Either institutional investment or regulatory certainty.

- When we see some of these headlines, like recently with a $600 million hack, for someone who's not invested in this space, is that scaring away, kind of, mainstream investment when you see these big headlines?

EMILY PARKER: You know, I'm sure that it is, right? I mean, right now, there's a documentary on Netflix about a big crypto scandal, so yes, for a lot of people, they are really, really unfamiliar with this technology, and when the news that they see is about hacks or about scams, yes, it's going to scare some people away. But I think what's happening, is, like, we are seeing a, the industry learning from some of these hacks, and b, in some cases, customers aren't left holding the bag, they're actually getting their money back, right? And I think the more, sort of, trust building measures we see on that, the more people will feel confident. But yes, of course, these headlines are not doing crypto any favors, for sure.

- And I want to focus on it there for a second. In terms of the turning point that people are, sort of, waiting for regarding things that are built on the blockchain including Ethereum. What is it that you're keeping an eye on there?

EMILY PARKER: With Ethereum? So I think-- yeah, I mean, Ethereum has been performing. I mean, generally, we've seen like a lot of growth spurts Ethereum. I think the next is the merge, ETH 2.0, which people have been waiting for a very long time. And I think there are really, really high expectations for what this is going to do. You know, Ethereum moving to proof of stake. I mean, there's so much happening in the Ethereum world. And also, another really important thing about Ethereum is that the use cases are just really different, right? I mean, Ethereum is very prominent, for example, in the NFT world. A lot of that or decentralized Finance and DeFi, so I actually think it's a good thing when people start distinguishing Bitcoin, from Ethereum, from all these other altcoins out there, because they actually do perform very differently and have a lot of different functions, and I think that's a sign of maturation when people are like OK, these aren't all the same thing.

- Just the last thing while we have you, it would be fascinating to know, from your perspective, given that you were mentioning the institutional buy in that could come in the future and that we've already seen as some banks have even set up crypto trading desks to this point in time, when we think about that institutional buy in, at the same time, that means that there is less supply that would be available in theory for some of the average investors or the people who just want to be able to utilize this. Is that a net positive at the end of the day if you do have more larger institutions that are holding the larger majority or basically the largest crypto whales that are out there?

EMILY PARKER: That's an interesting question. I mean, I think the whale problem is something that many in the Bitcoin community have been concerned about for a long time, but I think at this point in Bitcoin's history, institutional investment is still seen, because as we just discussed, like, there's still so much distrust of cryptocurrency, because of these scams and because of these hacks, that when you have a big institution coming in and, like, a brand name coming in, it does kind of put people's fears at rest. So I think that's a legitimate concern, but I think for the time being, institutional investment is still probably positive for Bitcoin's price.