Bitcoin ‘untouchable’ amid regulatory pressures, says analyst

Bitcoin (BTC) is “untouchable” despite ongoing regulatory pressures in the crypto sector and those who don’t have some crypto exposure are “seriously silly” according to Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone. 

During an April 3 stream with crypto podcaster Scott Melker, McGlone argued that unlike other cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH), Bitcoin couldn’t be killed by regulators because it’s more decentralized.

— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) April 3, 2023

“There’s so much disdain about regulators pushing back on the whole space, and that’s the key thing where Bitcoin sticks out,” McGlone said.

“You can’t do anything to this, and you can’t kill it and it’s just unprecedented; it is untouchable.”

“You could make a case that Ethereum is a security when you hear about all these upgrades and people doing this and people doing that to make it better, I’m like okay well that’s kind of scary, can’t do that to Bitcoin, it’s why it’s fine and impressive,” McGlone added.

The crypto sector has faced a wave of crackdowns in the United States recently, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing charges against crypto exchange Kraken for its staking services, then suing stablecoin issuer Paxos over Binance USD (BUSD). The regulator also proposed rule changes targeted at crypto firms operating as custodians.

McGlone stated he is still bullish on BTC but expects the price to go down again in step with other assets if a recession hits.

Back in January, he warned BTC might not see the surge being predicted just yet, as there are challenging macroeconomic conditions and pressure from interest-rate hikes.

According to McGlone the April 2 decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reduce daily oil output makes a recession more likely, as well as interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve to clamp down on inflation.

“We had our morning call this morning and our economist Anna Wong said, Yeah, their base case is for that recession to kick in Q3,” he said.

“OPEC is helping that. Fed tightening is helping that. So all assets have to go down. That means Bitcoin too. It’s the fastest horse in the race. So I’m overall, certainly relatively bullish.”

Related: Bitcoin likely to outperform all crypto assets following banking crisis, analyst explains

In McGlone’s opinion, it’s “seriously silly” to risk not having some exposure to crypto or trying to stand in its way.

“The key thing I look at simplistically for Bitcoin is, if you’re a money manager, why take the risk of not having some of this revolutionary asset, particularly because it’s so controversial you want to have at least some in it because you don’t want to look like an idiot over history,” he said.

“The smart guys get it; we’re not gonna be a Blockbuster or Sears, and we’re going to be part of this technology.”

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