BREAKDOWN: Why $20,000 Bitcoin Matters
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2020
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Validation. Psychology. FOMO. NLW looks at why today’s price achievement marks a turning point in bitcoin’s history.
This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com and Nexo.io.
After weeks of flirting with all-time highs, bitcoin has broken through the most significant psychological barrier: $20,000.
In today’s episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at why the moment is so significant, arguing:
- Bitcoin is an incentive design system where price drives more benefits than financial gain
- The validation of retail traders and more recent institutional investors creates an even stronger group of evangelists
- The psychological price barrier is likely to increase FOMO among those on the sidelines
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We're officially closing one chapter and opening a new one. This does not mean that we won't go |
| 0:06.2 | back under 20K. Who knows we could spend some serious time there? What it means is that the |
| 0:11.9 | promised return has been achieved. This trough of toil has been waded through. In other words, |
| 0:18.6 | this 20,000 is a new beginning. And like all new beginnings, it is at once |
| 0:23.7 | based on everything that came before, and at the same time, totally open and full of new possibility. |
| 0:32.6 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:42.7 | The breakdown is sponsored by crypto.com and nexo.io and produced and distributed by CoinDest. |
| 0:52.0 | What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, December 16th, and lock this day into your memories forever |
| 1:00.6 | because there it is. After weeks of flirting, nudging, bumping and grinding, Bitcoin is back over |
| 1:09.5 | 20,000, $20,0008.92 at the time of recording. |
| 1:15.6 | This will be all anyone is talking about today, very rightly so. |
| 1:20.6 | So I wanted to take a stab on why it matters. |
| 1:25.6 | First, let's discuss why $20,000 Bitcoin is so much more impactful and resonant than |
| 1:33.7 | just all-time highs, which obviously we've achieved over the last couple weeks. In the 2017 run-up, |
| 1:40.4 | Bitcoin touched 20,000 on specific exchanges, but it was never the officially cited number. |
| 1:46.4 | The official all-time high depending on where you look and who you ask was somewhere |
| 1:49.8 | between 19,600 or so and 19,800. |
| 1:54.1 | We were following that run-up like crazy though. |
| 1:57.2 | Remember, it happened unbelievably fast. At Thanksgiving 2017, Bitcoin was under 10K. It hit |
| 2:05.3 | those all-time highs less than three weeks later around December 17th. By the way, almost three |
| 2:11.0 | years ago to the day. Everything was shorthand then, because in some ways, these numbers were |
| 2:16.8 | almost meaningless. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CoinDesk, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of CoinDesk and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.