Scott Melker, host of The Wolf of All Streets podcast and cryptocurrency analyst, has weighed in on the possibility of bitcoin being co-opted from its original purpose with the recent sales of giant whales. Melker’s opinion sparked a debate on the meaning of this on social media.
Has Bitcoin Been Co-Opted, or Is This an Intermediate Phase to a Bitcoin Standard? Analysts Discuss
Bitcoin, as an economic phenomenon, is currently being studied by analysts, who debate whether its original revolutionary idea of substituting the current fiat system has been co-opted. Scott Melker, host of The Wolf of All Streets podcast, a crypto trader and analyst, appears to believe this has occurred to some degree, given the recent selloff of over 80,000 BTC from an ancient whale holder.
In a post published on social media, Melker stated:
Bitcoin is amazing, but it’s obviously been co-opted to some degree by the very people that it was created as a hedge against. Many of the most ardent early whales have seen their faith shaken and have been selling at these prices.
This sparked a heated debate, with some siding with Melker and others arguing that early bitcoin whales have the right to cash out to enjoy the fruits of their investment.
Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, shared Melker’s opinion, but highlighted that even if this was happening, bitcoin was still “pretty revolutionary.” “It’s the first global money backed, not by the state and the threat of violence, but by logic and community,” he stressed, and asked for respect for early whales’ movements. “The world needs bitcoin more than ever,” he concluded.
Investor Mike Alfred showed a contrarian opinion, explaining that “people make a personal decision to sell some of all their coins for a myriad of reasons that have nothing to do with the asset or protocol,” mentioning that investment returns become irrelevant at some point.
The argument rose after Galaxy Digital recently unloaded a large part of 80,000 BTC previously held by a 2011 whale onto the market.
