meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Breakdown

Is Bitcoin A Safe Haven or ‘Schmuck Insurance’?

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Business, Investing

4.8806 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bitcoin is having a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. Many are using the dump - which from a timing perspective aligns with a broader market selloff among Coronavirus fears - as a way to diminish the “bitcoin as a safe haven” narrative.  In this episode, @nlw revisits that narrative and argues that it is uncomfortably bunched up with the uncorrelated asset narrative, or, as Chamath Palihapitiya calls it “schmuck insurance.” This episode also covers: Central bank digital currency (CBDC) news: Canada says it doesn’t see the need right now but that could change if private cryptos get more traction, while China’s work on a digital yuan is paused due to Coronavirus shutdowns.  The six year anniversary of Mt. Gox’s lost 750,000 BTC coming to light.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to The Breakdown, an everyday analysis breaking down the most important stories in Bitcoin, crypto, and beyond, with your host, NLW.

0:15.0

The Breakdown is distributed by CoinDesk.

0:20.0

Welcome back to the breakdown.

0:22.4

It is Wednesday, February 26th.

0:24.6

And today we are going to be looking at first, the world of CBDCs.

0:29.1

Canada has run a test and come away unimpressed and has some interesting thoughts that

0:34.2

might reveal maybe what's in store for the future of central bank currencies.

0:38.8

We also got interesting news out of China that relates to how the coronavirus is impacting

0:44.0

their plans, which will bring us to our second topic, which is interpretations of the Bitcoin

0:49.8

price in the context of coronavirus. Bitcoin like everything is hemorrhaging right now. And does that

0:56.1

mean, and this is what we'll ask, that the safe haven asset narrative is dead. So that's second.

1:02.7

Third, we're going to be looking at the Mount Gox anniversary, the Goxiversary, basically,

1:08.1

of the insolvency of the first big exchange to dominate the Bitcoin world.

1:14.2

And we'll look back at the history and maybe a little bit about what it meant and point you to

1:17.7

some cool resources for those who want to dig in a little bit more.

1:21.0

So with that, let's actually dive right into our first topic, CBDCs.

1:26.3

Ever since the emergence of Libra last year, we've seen central banks from governments around the

1:31.6

world race to figure out what their strategy around digital currencies is going to be, right?

1:37.4

For a lot of them, that means forming research initiatives, some of them cross-border and

1:42.9

collaborating with other governments or international

1:45.0

institutions like the Bank for International Settlements. For some, it's a more aggressive

1:49.4

testing posture, right? You have Cambodia who's saying that they're going to test. And obviously,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Blockworks, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Blockworks and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.