The panel covered topics of safe storage and custody, network effects and how new projects are utilizing this, and current economic landscape effected by COVID-19 and its effects on crypto.
Thomas Glucksmann of Merkle Science moderated the panel. Thomas has been around crypto since Mt. Gox and has in-depth knowledge on the industry, particularly crypto criminals.
Mati Greenspan, licensed portfolio manager, said that companies in the digital space are sheltered compared to traditional companies. People are getting nervous as the federal reserve keep injecting fiat money. Bitcoin today is still risky and volatile. It is not qualified to be a safe heaven asset yet, although countries like Argentina where local currency are severely inflated treat BTC as a safe haven. On the other hand, Google’s search results show that day trading spiked up as the market become volatile since COVID-19 started expanding. Mati also called out CZ for his purchase of Coin Market Cap.
Lennix, financial market director of OKEx, said exchanges don’t see much impact by COVID-19 but unusual high volume and traffic. He also mentioned 3 years ago when they started OKEx, BTC was nothing compared to traditional finance. However, statistics have already proved it to be digital gold. BTC belongs to the investable asset column and should be part of your portfolio. Exchanges need to work on regulations and make it accessible for traditional investors.
Alessio, founder of Hex Trust, said people before were attracted by blockchain technology, but now are more attracted by cryptocurrency’s economic value, which brings new liquidity to the market.