Bitcoin Believers Defiant After Shock Crash: ‘Still Not Selling a Penny’

Rudy TakalaJun 22nd, 2021, 3:54 pm
 

Bitcoin adherents were defiant in the face of Tuesday’s market crash, including Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who insisted it was still “a pretty healthy market.”

“We don’t know what’s causing it,” Zhao said in an interview with Bloomberg, referencing the crash. “There’s a lot of news that’s going on right now … so it’s very hard to tell. From our perspective, we just see people placing orders. If we come back to it, like, a year ago, the market is still 10 [times] bigger, 10 [times] more active. So we think it’s still a pretty healthy market.”

Zhao, the Chinese-Canadian founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, said the news included positive developments, and specifically cited El Salvador’s announcement that it was adopting bitcoin as legal tender — meaning companies, including international corporations operating in El Salvador, will be required to accept it. On the other end of the spectrum, Zhao noted the fact that China’s Central Bank reiterated this week that financial institutions are required to block cryptocurrency transactions.

China’s ban first made headlines in May, but lax enforcement — along with hopes that China’s ruling Communist Party has been merely showboating opposition to cryptocurrency — left some observers hopeful that the country’s skepticism would subside.

Bitcoin on Tuesday briefly traded around $29,000, according to data-provider Messari, a decline of more than 50 percent from its April 14 high of roughly $64,000. Nonetheless, Zhao wasn’t alone in his optimism.

“Congrats to all those with conviction who bought the bitcoin dip!” Tyler Winklevoss — who, with his twin, Cameron Winklevoss, parlayed $11 million in bitcoin bought in the early 2010s into more than $1 billion as of this year — wrote on Twitter.

Investors in other corners of the market echoed the sentiment.

Watch above via Bloomberg.

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