During an interview on Monday (February 22), Daniel Ives, a Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst covering the Technology sector at investment firm Wedbush Securities, shared his thoughts on Bitcoin.

Ives’ comments came during an interview with Joe Kernen, co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box around 08:49 ET (i.e. 13:49 UTC), when Bitcoin was trading around $52,933.

Ives was asked by Keren if there would be a material impact on Tesla if the Bitcoin price went down significantly.

Ives replied:

I think this is not just a fad. I think Tesla’s going to continue to double down on its Bitcoin investment and you’re seeing from a transaction perspective as well, but no doubt they’ve made about a billion dollars on paper from Bitcoin. It’s more they need from profit and all of EV sales 2020. I think it just speaks to what we’re seeing in terms of this market.

Kernen then asked what if Tesla lost a billion dollars as a result of their investment in Bitcoin.

No doubt this is something that Musk and Tesla… they’re going to dive into the deep end of the pool on Bitcoin because they’re not just doing it from an investment perspective, but from a transaction perspective…

We think three to five percent of public companies will go down this route over next 12 to 18 months from an investment perspective, but until regulatory goalposts are put in, we don’t think it ratchets up beyond that.

Kernen then asked what would be the rationale for these companies buying Bitcoin and if it made sense for a percentage of a public company’s treasury to be in Bitcoin. Ives answered:

Well, I think that’s going be for the company as well as the boards to decide, but I think we’ve seen MicroStrategy, Tesla… Square and some others… I think this is a trend that could become more mainstream. I think you need regulatory goalposts put in for more boards and companies to go down this route, but I think it’s going to have a ripple effect in terms of what Musk and Tesla have done here…

Earlier today (February 22), according to data from TradingView, Bitcoin dropped $10,877 from the intraday high of $57,577 (at 00:00 UTC) to the intraday low of $46,700 (at 14:17 UTC).

According to crypto analytics firm IntoTheBlock (ITB), some of the selling pressure on Bitcoin may have come from selling on crypto exchange Gemini.

As usual, the main reason for today’s price correction was over-leveraged positions getting liquidated.

Here is prominent macroeconomist and crypto analyst Alex Krüger explaining what happened today:

He went on to say that in the short term might continue its slide toward the upper 40s area:

Three cryptoassets that impressed Krüger today (due to the strength that they showed) were XRP, LEO Token (LEO), and Raydium (RAY).

As far as bullish news is concerned, Sunayna Tuteja, the former Head of Digital Assets & DLT (Blockchain, Crypto) has joined the Federal Reserve System as the Chief Innovation Officer. 

Featured Image by “SnapLaunch” via Pixabay.com

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.