Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s utterances about Bitcoin and Dogecoin created quite a flutter in the cryptocurrency market over this past week.
While his “hustle” remark about Dogecoin, likely in a jocular vein, triggered a major correction in the so-called “joke currency”, the mercurial CEO also did some serious talking about the energy-guzzling Bitcoin.
Tesla’s decision to drop Bitcoin payments caused the cryptocurrency and some of its peers to crash and drew him applause in some quarters for waking up to the environmental concerns that the popular cryptocurrency have evoked.
Bitcoin and Dogecoin, over the past few months, have earned decent following among Indian investors, and thus, Musk’s remarks resonated equally with them and drew a fair share of reactions from the industry leaders.
We caught up with Vikram Rangala, COO of ZebPay, a crypto exchange that serves customers across the globe, to understand the industry’s reactions to and the ramifications from these developments.
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A) How do you look at the wild swings that we have seen in Bitcoin and Dogecoin in response to some of the statements from the Tesla CEO?
B) When the crypto industry has been trying to project cryptocurrency as an asset class, its wild reaction to one individual’s comments can be unnerving for investors. Ain’t it? It just shows a lack of depth in the asset class at one level, if I may say so.
C) The issue Musk raised about Bitcoin is concerning, isn’t it? And that does raise a sustainability question about this particular cryptocurrency. How would you try and assure investors on that?
D) We know of a good investor base for bitcoin in India. But how about Dogecoin? Has it also caught on fast?
E) There is still regulatory uncertainty over cryptocurrencies in India. We hear about the industry having a lot of interactions with the government in recent times. How do you expect the scenario to pan out?
Thank you so much for joining in Mr. Rangala and look forward to hosting you again.
That’s it in this SPECIAL PODCAST, folks. Do keep checking this space for our weekly specials and the twice-a-day market podcasts. Happy Weekend!
