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Barry Silbert, the founder and CEO of Grayscale Investments and Digital Currency Group (DCG), has recently expressed his bullish outlook on Bitcoin in a Grayscale investor call on Feb. 12. He discussed various topics related to digital assets, such as Bitcoin’s role in the generational shift of wealth, stablecoins, decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
CBDCs are digital currencies that a federal regulator controls and issues. Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, CBDCs are fiat money in the digital form. Many governments have been developing and exploring such projects, but no global jurisdiction has launched a CBDC yet. At least 10% of central banks are anticipated to issue a CBDC for the general public soon, while China is reportedly about to test its CBDC.
Silbert said that central banks that create their own digital currencies could be empowering Bitcoin by building the infrastructure for institutional interest. He claims to have purchased his first Bitcoin in 2012, three years after the first block on the Bitcoin blockchain was created. He believes that Bitcoin and other non-central bank cryptocurrencies could benefit from the same infrastructure that is used by the widespread adoption of CBDCs: He said: “In the future we may have 80 different CBDCs. And if that occurs, it would spark a huge amount of investment in operators of financial systems where basically every financial institution would then need to be able to securely store and transact CBDCs and, you know what, if they actually construct that infrastructure, that same infrastructure could be utilized for non-central bank digital currencies like Bitcoin.” He also expressed confidence that central banks will require users to use and engage with the existing financial systems and will not limit the supply of the digital currency. “Central banks love to print money,” Silbert noted, pointing out Bitcoin’s limited supply feature.
As he leads two major companies that are involved in various aspects of digital assets, Silbert is one of the most influential figures in the crypto industry. Grayscale Investments is the world’s largest digital asset manager, with over $40 billion in assets under management as of Feb. 12. Various crypto-related projects, such as Foundry, Genesis Trading and CoinDesk, are invested in by Digital Currency Group, which is a venture capital firm.
Silbert has been vocal about his bullish views on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for a long time. He has also been critical of some projects, such as Ripple (XRP), which he considers to be centralized and not a true cryptocurrency. He has also predicted that most altcoins will experience bankruptcy in the long run, while Bitcoin will continue to dominate the market.
To sum up, Barry Silbert is a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry who thinks that central bank digital currencies are beneficial for Bitcoin. He contends that CBDCs will create the infrastructure for institutional interest in non-central bank cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. He also points out that Bitcoin has a limited supply feature that makes it superior to fiat money. He leads two major companies that are involved in various aspects of digital assets: Digital Currency Group and Grayscale Investments.