By
Bena Ilyas
May 13th, 2024
Lee opens up about the future of digital currencies stating that the price will reflect the success of the cryptocurrency in addition to other factors like market adoption, scalability, etc.
Charlie Lee, a long-time Bitcoin proponent and founder of Litecoin, recently appeared on CNBC’s Fast Money program on Monday, August 27. Lee discussed the current downfall of the cryptocurrency market, especially Bitcoin and Litecoin, and what holds ahead for the investors.
Lee was asked regarding Bitcoin’s possibility of going back to its all-time high of $20000, and the time it would take. Lee responded by saying that Bitcoin’s reversal to its all-time high is truly unpredictable wherein he added:
“I’ve been in this space for seven years now, I think sometimes it comes back within six months a year, sometimes it takes like three or four years. so it’s kind of hard to say.”
Additionally, Lee was asked some tough questions if the adoption of digital currencies among general masses going further and whether the current market prices reflect the digital currency’s network performance. To this, Lee said:
“I think in terms of the long term it tells us the success of cryptocurrency. In the short term it doesn’t really tell us much. For example, this year there’s been so much adoption in Bitcoin and Litecoin, but the price has dropped like 60-70%. It’s because it’s so volatile. It’s all about speculation these days. But in the future, the price will reflect the success of cryptocurrencies.”
Last year, when the cryptocurrency market was at its peak during December 2017, Charlie Lee sold all of his stake in Litecoin saying that he wants to avoid any further conflict of interest. During the recent talk, Lee was asked whether he would reconsider buying LTC anytime soon, to which he said NO.
Lee also said that the dips in the crypto market can provide a good opportunity to buy, but considering the sort of volatility cryptocurrencies have, one should be prepared enough to lose their investments. He said:
“For me, I sold because of conflict of interest, so I’m not going to buy back my Litecoins anytime soon – or at all. But I think it’s always good to buy on the way down to dollar-cost average your buy-in. That’s what I would recommend people to do. As long as you don’t spend money that you can’t afford to lose, I think that’s fine. I think it’s really bad for people who mortgage their house, put all their money into a coin and then watch it drop like 80%. But as long as you can afford to, I’d say spending some money on crypto is perfectly fine.”
Lee also noted that while picking up digital currencies for investments in the crypto space, one should be more focused on the technology behind it, its ability to scale, and the overall market adoption. Lee stated:
“I’d like people to focus on technology, on adoption, and also how to scale. So things like lightning network, or sidechains helping Bitcoin and Litecoin scale, I’d like to see more talk around that. And I think with the price currently depressed, it’s actually a good time for people to actually sit down and have their head down and actually work and get stuff done. And that’s what I’ve seen in the past few bear markets, actually.”
Charlie Lee has been quite vocal about his views on Bitcoin and digital currencies in general. Lee has recently joined the HTC team as an advisor to guide them in the development of the new blockchain-powered smartphone HTC exodus.