Neel Tushar Kashkari Says Bitcoin is Worthless

Neel Tushar Kashkari, the President of the Minneapolis Fed, characterized Bitcoin as a worthless asset due to its failure to enter the currency market.

Neel Tushar Kashkari, the President of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, recently declared that Bitcoin is a meaningless asset class despite its 12-year existence. He also stated that despite its endurance, crypto has yet to establish itself as a viable currency.

Bitcoin has demonstrated exceptional performance over the years, with gains of 9% in 2012, 59% in 2016, and 171% in 2020, despite Kashkari’s comments. The volatility of Bitcoin has increased as the United States prepares for the “Bitcoin elections,” as Jefferies investment firm has termed it, and it has outpaced major asset classes thus far this year. In the past month, Bitcoin has experienced a 10% increase, and it has experienced a 48% increase thus far in 2024.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin encountered more or less adversity in the final quarter of Q3, as the asset class generated stagnant returns of 0.8% as of September 30. Conversely, Gold, Bitcoin’s primary competitor, demonstrated a 13.8% increase in value during the most recent quarter.

Conversely, the demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs is also increasing in response to the successful launch earlier this year. The BTC ETFs have also experienced a significant increase in inflows, with $555 million on Monday. This is the most critical single-day inflow in four months, dating back to June 5, 2024. This unequivocally demonstrates that the institutional demand for the asset class remains robust despite the numerous obstacles.

Bitcoin Price and the US Elections

In addition to macroeconomic developments, the Bitcoin price would be significantly affected by the upcoming US elections. Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, is also making similar moves even though Donald Trump has been attracting crypto investors since the beginning of the Presidential campaign. Kamala Harris expressed her endorsement of transparent crypto guidelines on Monday if she is elected to the White House.

Both presidential candidates have committed to promoting a more crypto-friendly environment to facilitate the expansion of digital assets. Nevertheless, Donald Trump has been particularly vocal about the subject. He pledged to establish the United States as the global center for cryptocurrency if he were elected during the Bitcoin Conference 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. Confident market analysts say Bitcoin would experience substantial benefits following Donald Trump’s election.

In addition to the political situation, on-chain metrics indicate that a BTC price increase is imminent. The Bitcoin reserves on all centralized exchanges (CEXs) are presently at an all-time low, as noted in the CryptoQuant data. The asset’s declining reserves indicate investors are more optimistic about it as they transfer BTC to cold storage for the long term.

However, the Bitcoin open interest has reached an all-time high of $19.8 billion, indicating that speculators are accumulating long positions in BTC.

“This upward trend in the derivatives market suggests the increasing attention and liquidity in the cryptocurrency space,” CryptoQuant observed that the increase in funding rates is further evidence of a bullish sentiment among traders.