Crypto Market Sees Red as ‘Pomp’ Sticks to Bullish Bitcoin Forecast

But 3% declines are just a blip on the radar for cryptocurrency investors, who have learned how to weather much more severe volatility. In the latest Funky Crypto Podcast with retired MMA fighter Ben Askren and Litecoin Foundation chief evangelist John Kim, Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital, shared his BTC price forecast with the audience, mostly comprised of wrestling and mixed-martial arts fans. Pomp is not shy about being a Bitcoin bull, having said just over a year ago that low interest rates and money printing were like rocket fuel for Bitcoin ahead of the halving. That was pre-COVID, before the monetary policy of central banks had been essentially put on steroids. Pomp said on Askren’s podcast,

If you think that there’s a 1% chance that this new thing [digital decentralized financial system/bitcoin] could work, you should put 1% of your wealth in that. If you think there’s a 5% chance, you should put 5%.

While Askren pressed Pomp for a year-end 2020 Bitcoin price prediction, Pomp wouldn’t bite, instead shunning the notion of a short-term forecast and saying he instead preferred to look at the market through a longer term lens. With that, he stood by a previous estimate that Bitcoin would hit $100,000 by year-end 2021, which apparently must seem like light years away based on Askren’s disappointment.

Funky Crypto Podcast EP: 37 Livestream: The King of Podcast Anthony Pompliano @Apompliano #Bitcoin #litecoin #crypto $btc $ltc #BTC https://t.co/zdxMVW1R0w

— Bitcoin Ben (@Benaskren) August 25, 2020

Bitcoin to the Moon

Pomp isn’t the only one who is predicting a six-digit figure for the BTC price. Venture capitalist Tim Draper has set a $250,000 BTC price in his sights in the coming years, and hasn’t backed down from his outlook despite the fact that the flagship cryptocurrency has yet to reattain its all-time high. And while the cryptocurrency community may be well aware of the bullish forecasts stemming from these prognosticators, Askren, Pomp and Kim were talking to a different audience on this podcast — MMA and wrestling fans.

MMA Audience & Crypto

Crypto mainstream adoption might not happen overnight, but awareness is clearly on the rise. Askren, who is behind the Funky Crypto Podcast, revealed that his audience is broken down accordingly:

• 90% MMA
• 8% wrestling fans
• just 2% crypto

His fans might not know it but they are learning about crypto from some of the most high-profile investors in the market. And it was clear from their questions on Facebook that the audience’s interest was piqued. For instance, one follower asked if crypto was like PayPal only with the added perk of making a return on their money. Askren responded directly, explaining that instead of having to rely on a third-party intermediary, crypto lets you send funds directly peer-to-peer with low fees. The former wrestler also shot down some critics, quickly rebuffing one follower’s claim that buying Bitcoin meant you could be “hacked by a big banker mob” The dialog was in response to a question about if you can “start small” and buy $100 worth of BTC. In response, Pomp explained how Bitcoin is highly divisible, saying you can buy $5 worth if you want. Another follower asked what to do with $6,000 in cold hard cash, in response to which Askren stated, “Buy Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin vs. Gold

Pomp gave all the reasons why he believes Bitcoin is better than rival store-of-value asset gold, chief among which are:

• Gold is physical, heavy, and not easy to move, while BTC is digital and remains in its digital form no matter what.
• Gold is hard to transact
• BTC transactions are highly divisible, as a single coin can be split into 100 million smaller satoshi units.

The only area in which gold outshines BTC is in its track record, given its history of an eye-popping 5,000 years compared to Bitcoin’s 11. Pomp pointed out that the assets are in many ways a generational preference, revealing that he himself owns no gold.