Bitcoin turned 12 years old this January. For the past six months, it’s certainly been acting like it’s in middle school.
There was that massive growth spurt from January to April. Some awkward gyrations followed. Then serious peer pressure involving other coins in its class.
This was all accompanied by the persistent influence of social-media personalities. They range from Elon Musk to Mark Cuban to even Gisele Bündchen. Their views on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies more broadly have been evolving dramatically over the span of just a few short months.
Here — organized into four different categories based on their most recent positions — is where some of the biggest crypto influencers stand as we hit the halfway mark of this highly volatile year for the space:
The Usual Suspects
Elon Musk:
He’s shifted gears several times this year. In February the head of Tesla Inc. said his company had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and signaled that the firm would start to accept the cryptocurrency. He reversed that position in May, citing environmental concerns about Bitcoin mining. But then in June he said Tesla would allow Bitcoin transactions — if mining were to get cleaner.
Musk’s latest tweets indicate that he’s also had Dogecoin on his mind. (Don’t forget he called Doge a “hustle” on a “Saturday Night Live” appearance in May.) His tweets can drive up Dogecoin’s price, with a recent missive about “releasing the Doge” and one turning the lyrics of the “Baby Shark” earworm into a diddy about the meme coin.
Mark Cuban:
Bitcoin is still “better than gold,” according to the Dallas Mavericks owner and crypto bull.
What is striking: Cuban’s recent call for regulation of so-called stable coins, which are supposed to have a fixed price. This position came to light after Cuban said he was hit by the collapse of the DeFi Titanium token, which went from $60 to $0 in a single day in June.
“There should be regulation to define what a stable coin is and what collateralization is acceptable,” Cuban wrote to Bloomberg News in response to the incident.
Mike Novogratz:
The head of Galaxy Digital is a dependably bullish Bitcoin commentator and has not strayed far from his standard position this year. He stopped by Bloomberg Television recently to tout the cryptocurrency’s staying power in light of a recent regulatory crackdown in China.
“The Chinese threw everything they could at Bitcoin in lots of ways, right? They banned mining, they’re banning leverage, they’re banning Bitcoin in some places,” he said. “And Bitcoin still exists. It survived.”
The Winklevoss Twins:
Count on brothers Tyler and Cameron, who run the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust, to retweet each other when the going gets tough for Bitcoin. “The crisis makes the leader. The selloff makes the HODLer,” Cameron tweeted during a dip in June.
On the same day, Tyler had an equally positive spin: “Congrats to all those with conviction who bought the #bitcoin dip!”
All fine and well, but some analysts fear the dip could persist. Bitcoin has roughly halved from a peak near $65,000 in April. A JPMorgan Chase & Co. team wrote in a June note that they see the near-term setup as a “challenge” for the cryptocurrency.
The New Ambassadors
Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen:
The American football player and world-renowned supermodel are the latest celebrities to dip into the world of crypto promotion. The two will serve as ambassadors for FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. Bündchen will serve as an environmental and social-initiatives adviser for the company.
Brady, who recently added laser eyes to his Twitter profile in a symbol of support for Bitcoin, seemed to question the cryptocurrency in a recent message. “Alright the laser eyes didn’t work. Anyone have any ideas?” he wrote.