The deadline for that prediction is “late 2021.” According to the executive, Bitcoin will succeed first as a store of value, and then as a means of payment.

Pierre Rochard directs the area of Bitcoin strategy at the Kraken exchange. The executive stated that “more than 50% of the S&P 500 companies will have Bitcoin on their balance sheets.” His prediction was specific since he said that this will occur “by the end of 2021.” He noted that he considers Bitcoin “a more fearsome asset than gold itself.”

This finance graduate explained that “many people reexamined the system, questioned the fundamentals, and reconsidered what is happening, as a monetary response to the COVID-19 crisis.” In this scenario, he considers that Bitcoin has an advantage over other assets.

“Big investors and [institutional] investment allocators are really open-minded people and want to understand Bitcoin before making a decision,” said Rochard. “I am sure that if they understand Bitcoin better, their decision will be a yes,” he added.

The analysis of recent events served as the foundation for Rochard’s expectation about institutional adoption. “We have market data that show this,” he explained.

According to Kraken’s director of Bitcoin strategy, there will be “a lot of corporate adoption of Bitcoin and even cases like what [MicroStrategy CEO] Michael Saylor is doing.” He also says that “there will be corporations that will issue large amounts of bonds, fixed income instruments, convertibles, among others, to buy Bitcoin in bulk.”

In 2020, the MicroStrategy Company formally adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as its main reserve asset. They have 70,470 BTC, which is equivalent to almost USD 2 billion.

The CEO of that company, Michael Saylor, also owns at least 17,732 BTC as a personal reserve asset. According to the executive, he made the purchases before the organization that he directs did.

Bitcoin’s Price Volatility

Kraken’s director of strategy expressed his point of view on one of the characteristics of Bitcoin that lead many to stop adopting it: its price volatility.

“I think volatility will continue, which is predictable as Bitcoin is a fixed-supply asset,” said Rochard. However, he assumes that volatility will decrease as more large, long-term investors enter the ecosystem.

“As these big players enter, they could help to stabilize the price. However, it will stabilize upwards since they are interested in holding (saving) rather than in selling. Some of them are not interested in going in and out daily, but they want to keep their investment for 50 years,” said Rochard.

Bitcoin as a Reserve of Value Rather Than a Means of Payment

The also founder of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute and host of the Noded Bitcoind podcast, said that an increasing number of companies will join the Bitcoin standard and start using the cryptocurrency as a treasury reserve asset. He explained that they will then “want to receive payments in Bitcoin to avoid the transaction costs of having to convert US dollars into Bitcoin.”

For this reason, this disseminator of topics related to Bitcoin believes that people will adopt this cryptocurrency as a store of value rather than use it as a means of exchange in common use.

Rochard is convinced that “Bitcoin will be the next world reserve currency”, which is why he recently published the Bitcoin Hodl Act. This bill contains two forms for its application (as an amendment to an existing law or as a new Section) and would allow US federal agencies to keep savings in Bitcoin.

The finance specialist stated that “some governments are going to be constructive concerning cryptocurrencies, given that they have more to gain than to lose.” He added that “big institutional players hoard hundreds of millions of US dollars worth of Bitcoin, which is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Rochard predicted that “what we will see are sovereign wealth funds that hoard Bitcoin and energy countries that will enter mining.” He stressed that “only Venezuela is doing mining at the state level, but we will eventually see the entry of countries like Saudi Arabia or Russia.”

By Willmen Blanco

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