Cryptocurrency influencer Carl Runefelt’s had a rough few months.
The cryptocurrency crash cost him $100 million, he says, and he’s also faced criticism of Kasta, a payments platform he co-founded to combat high transaction fees for cryptocurrencies.
Yet the permabull’s belief in Bitcoin is unshaken. Indeed, he’s so sure it’ll reach $100,000 this year that he tweeted in January that he’ll delete his Twitter account, which has almost a million followers, if it doesn’t.
If #Bitcoin does not hit $100,000 before the end of this year then I’ll delete my Twitter…
— The Moon Is Back (@TheMoonCarl) January 31, 2022
#Ethereum to $30,000 this year or I delete my Twitter.
— The Moon Is Back (@TheMoonCarl) January 23, 2022
Even that brought him some flak. A Twitter handle called “One Coin to Rule Them All’’ displayed a screenshot of a nearly identical tweet Runefelt sent last year while an account named Rhea Anderson responded, “Careful man, this is a speculative market; no one knows exactly what will happen.”
Using the name “The Moon’’ on social media, Runefelt says central bank digital currencies are stupid and that the world will be forced to adopt bitcoin as legal tender within three decades. He labelled Charlie Munger, legendary investor Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, ‘’old and boring’’ after he said Bitcoin is ‘’worthless.’’
Runefelt was included by Forbes magazine in its ranking of 30 people under 30 years old last year, noting he had more than 500,000 followers on his Youtube channel. Three years ago, he was a cashier in Sweden earning minimum wage. Now 27, he’s launched the world’s first crypto peer-to-peer crypto transfer platform called Kasta on Bybit, an asset platform. It’s designed to combat high transaction fees and slow blockchain transfers, he says.
The tokens used on the Kasta platform for transactions are the most searched this year, according to Defy Trends. Kasta tokens have an initial market cap of $1.5 million and a supply of 37.5 million, Runefelt says. The teething problems that afflicted the Kasta platform after its launch on January 5, when customers could see Kasta tokens on Bybit but were unable to buy them, have been resolved, Runefelt says.
In a recent interview, he talked to Asia Financial’s Eetika Kapoor. Excerpts:
Has the crash undermined your faith in cryptocurrencies?
I don’t care about short-term volatility as I’m in it for the long term. I know that BTC is the best form of currency in the world. It’s the scarcest asset in the universe so if bitcoin goes down 20% in one week I really don’t care.
What caused the crash?
I don’t know why, nobody knows. But the fundamentals are stronger now than ever. The fundamentals of BTC are going up every month: more users, higher hash rates, more institutions jumping in. El Salvador has BTC as legal tender, Tesla is investing, everything is getting stronger and stronger. When the fundamentals are getting stronger and the price is going down, that’s the perfect time to buy. Bitcoin is still in a bull cycle. It could even go as high as $500,000 in 2023. I think BTC can reach $1 million by 2025 and $10 million by 2030.
How do you view Bitcoin’s potential as a medium of exchange?
Bitcoin has the best decentralized and secure store value. It is the most transferable, divisible and secure money in the world. The only problem right now is that Bitcoin is not yet a perfect medium of exchange because the transaction fees are still too high for small payments. I am positive people will be able to get these secondary solutions that are completely decentralized in the coming decade. However, today, they are far from being user friendly.
You say Bitcoin is the best inflation hedge in the world so why is it plunging when the Fed prepares to raise interest rates to counter rising prices?
Bitcoin is the best inflation hedge in the history of the world because it’s the scarcest asset. Look at the US dollar: you can print it out repeatedly, which drops its value. Gold is also another good inflation hedge but it can still be minted.
The scarcity, decentralisation and security of Bitcoin make it the best bet. BTC has a finite supply of 21 million and the problem with inflation is that the supply is changing over time. BTC is the best hedge as the supply is not changing unlike every other asset in the world.
Why do you say Central Bank Digital Currencies are stupid?
In short, central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are stupid because not only are they centralized, but they’re also not backed up by anything. Governments can control citizens more than ever through CBDCs.
If you look at the federal system, more than 90% of dollars exist in the digital realm. The problem with the US dollar when it’s digital is that it’s still printable and infinite. Bitcoin is not only digital money, but it’s also digital property. Governments are completely missing the whole point of crypto, which is meant to be decentralised and “the people’s money.’’
- By Eetika Kapoor
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