Charles Schwab Chief Strategist: Bitcoin’s Bubble Is ‘Something Different’
Then asked if he thought Bitcoin was in fact a bubble, Chief Strategist of investment giant Charles Schwab, Jeffrey Kleintop, focused on Bitcoin’s uniqueness in the global economy.
In an interview with Business Insider today, Kleintop said Bitcoin was “kind of its own thing” and hard to predict due to its “independence.”
Bitcoin has defied recent doom-mongering from mainstream news and investment sources, already starting to reverse losses seen last week when prices fell from to under $13,000. Less than a week before the correction, Bitcoin hit over $20,000 a coin.
Despite bubble-like behavior remaining a common narrative among analysts discussing Bitcoin, Kleintop conspicuously chose not to outright agree, giving kudos to the concept that Bitcoin was more of an unknown, unique phenomenon. Describing the anomalous nature of Bitcoin, he told Business Insider:
“...I think the Bitcoin bubble if you want to call it that, is something different. If prices for Bitcoin were to plunge suddenly, because it's so independent from the financial system, it's kind of its own thing. It hasn't yet become embedded in the economy and the financial structure.”
Other well-known names in traditional finance to shun the “bubble question” this week include Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, who told Bloomberg that those who assume “pure speculation” is responsible for Bitcoin’s price rise “haven’t done their work.”
Business Insider’s own CEO, Henry Blodget, took a more diplomatic approach, stating Bitcoin could simultaneously be a bubble and “have a glorious future and change the world.”
Bitcoin can be a bubble and still change the world pic.twitter.com/WcjbMyK3Xy
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) December 25, 2017Blodget had described Bitcoin as having “no intrinsic value” earlier this year.