Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of both Reddit and VC firm Initialized Capital, upheld his $20,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and $1,500 Ethereum (ETH) forecasts for 2018 in an interview with CNBC on July 24.
Speaking of the “battle-tested” Bitcoin, Ohanian said the asset is “certainly the most robust” and “one of the best proofs” of crypto being a possible store of value — something he underscored as increasingly important in a global context of fiscal and political “uncertainty.”
Ohanian noted that “as volatile as it’s been, we see [Bitcoin] continuing to go up over the long term,” adding that his belief in the coin’s resilience has been cemented by ongoing developments to make blockchain more scalable.
Weighing in on whether blockchain could “dwarf” the world wide web in its ultimate impact, Ohanian said there is a “chance for a new internet to be built” on its basis, and considered that “the idea of being able to browse with a store of value” has the potential to bring financial inclusion to “anyone with an internet connection.”
Ohanian also characterized decentralized cryptocurrencies as a “changing sign of the times,” while tempering his stance to emphasize that he “is not calling for the end of fiat or anything like that.” Nonetheless, he said, crypto is rapidly developing into a “viable alternative that is showing more and more credibility over time”
Given the “ton of wild speculation in the coin arena,” Ohanian said that Initialized Capital is betting on “the picks and shovels” of the nascent industry. The VC firm, which has over $250 million assets under management, was one of U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase’s first investors.
Ohanian noted,
“We’re looking for those companies who are building the robust but very unsexy infrastructure that’s probably not going to make a headline anytime soon.”
Ohanian’s staunch espousal of Bitcoin comes at a time when the asset’s dominance by market capitalization in the total crypto market posted its highest level yet in 2018, passing 46 percent July 23 — a threshold last seen December 22, 2017, when the coin was trading just below all-time highs of around $20,000.
As of press time, BTC dominance has inched up yet further to 47.2 percent, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin is trading around $8,169, up about one percent on the day. Ethereum is trading around $471, down just over half a percent on the day to press time.