CNBC Africa's "Crytro Trader"
Ran Neu-Ner, long time crypto investor and the host of CNBC Africa's "Crytro Trader", was asked on Thursday by the hosts of CNBC's "Fast Money" to play the game "HODL or FODL?" (i.e. bullish or bearish), so that they could find out how he feels about various popular cryptocurrencies. His answers and explanations will probably surprise you. But first, he was asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its deliberations on whether Ethereum should be classified as a security or as a commodity.
CNBC has kindly put up a video of the entire segment from the Fast Money show on YouTube, and if you manage to find the time, I would highly urge you to watch all of it because even though we may not agree with all the views expressed by the "Crypto Trader", the entire section where the game is played (which starts from the 2:10 mark on the video) is highly entertaining.
SEC & Potential Upcoming Crypto Regulations
"Well, I think the initiative by the SEC was a great one, but I think the joke is on the SEC now because they need to come up with regulation. If they don't come up with regulation, then they may stifle an entire industry. Now I know they are balancing investor protection with the need to grow an industry, but if you looked at places like Japan and Singapore, they've got thriving ICOs and they've got a thriving new industry. And my fear, having traveled extensively to that region and spoken to all their founders and the legislators there, is that the USA may be actually falling behind, and that we may not get a Silicon Valley here in the USA because it may all fall into the legislations that are favorable towards these ICOs that have got some kind of regulation in place."
He concluded by saying: "The SEC did adopt a responsible approach by taking their time to see what's happening with the industry. But now we know that crypto is real. We know that the blockchain and crypto isn't going away any time soon. And now they've got to come to the party and give some kind of regulation so we know where we stand."
Bitcoin (BTC)
"I like Bitcoin a lot, but I'm going to FODL. And I'll tell you why. I will justify that. I think Bitcoin at $8200... I think the price is low. I think it's going to continue to go up slowly and in a stable way. But there are more exciting cryptocurrencies out there. And if you are going to ask me if I'm going to put my money into Bitcoin or something more exciting, I'm going go with something more exciting... A lot of the money is going from Bitcoin and even Ethereum and the more established coins to this ICO frenzy. There is this frenzy happening which is not on the markets. It's happening on the outside of the markets, where hundreds of millions of dollars are going into ICOs. Where is that money coming from? It's not coming from fiat. It's people cashing in their Bitcoin and Ethereum. And when they cash in, the market is going to go down. That said, I do think the institutions are going to come in towards the end of this year and they are going to come into Bitcoin and Ethereum first, and then the market is going to go up. So I'm caling Bitcoin "Up", and I do love the technology, but there are better coins out there. So, I am FODLing on that one."
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
"I know I'm going to get murdered on Twitter, but I'm going to HODL. I'm HODLing. I think there is a lot of potential for Bitcoin Cash. I like the team behind it, that are driving. It is all the old Bitcoin people. And so my money, as much as it is going to hurt me on Twitter... But let me just say I love both kids equally. But if you ask me where I'd put my money right now, Bitcoin Cash has got more potential."
Ethereum (ETH)
"HODL for sure. I'm holding Ethereum... The biggest community in the industry. Thousands of people, the smartest people in the room. They've got use cases. They are solving the scalability issues. So, I'm HODLing Ethereum."
Ripple (XRP)
"Ripple I'm throwing in the garbage. FODL! FODL! Because I've been researching the Ripple token, the XRP token for a long time. Let me just make a differentiation. Ripple, the company -- one of the best companies on Earth. XRP the token -- I still can't work out what it is used for. Ripple the company does the banking systems... It replaces SWIFT with bank to bank money transfers, primarily international money transfers. You don't need the XRP token to do that. So, as far as I know, I can't find a use case for the token. So, I'm out."
When one of the hosts asked him "So nobody uses it for anything?", he replied: "Right now, absolutely not. And it's centralized. And that defeats the whole purpose of blockchain."
Featured Image Credit: "#HODL Cryptocurrencies" by "Marco Verch" via Flickr; licensed under "CC BY 2.0