Barry Silbert, Grayscale's CEO & Founder
Barry Silbert, the founder of several major cryptocurrency ventures, most notably Grayscale, has announced his big bet against Dogecoin, which was made via the DOGEBEAR2021 token offered by FTX. On top of that, Silbert suggests DOGE holders to sell their coins for Bitcoin.
DOGE has enjoyed a tumultuous rise over the past few weeks, skyrocketing to new highs on the back of renewed interest from both Elon Musk and the general investor crowd.
While many enthusiastic Dogecoin investors have assured themselves that the volatile currency is on the road to $2, several thought leaders in the cryptocurrency space view this rise as a mania-fuelled bubble destined to pop. Several big names in the space agree with Silbert in that newbies making quick gains should siphon them into a safer risk-adjusted bet like Bitcoin.
Silbert’s tweet kicked off a frenzied trading hour, with 5 – 10% swings happening within minutes, mostly leaning bearish. The 3X Short Dogecoin Token on FTX is up almost 25% since Silbert’s tweet.
Dogecoin’s meteoric rise, which admittedly brought in thousands of newbies into the cryptocurrency space, definitely ended up giving people a false sense of security by way of far exceeding their expectations. Proponents of ‘safer’ cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum fear that new traders will incorrectly ascribe sound cryptocurrencies’ inherent properties to “meme coins” like DOGE.
Mirroring this sentiment, Silbert’s tweet reads: “Okay DOGE peeps, it’s been fun. Welcome to crypto!”, implying that most of those currently invested in Dogecoin are newcomers who need to hear this advice.
Silbert later tweeted that all profit made from the trade would be donated to ‘financial education and bitcoin-related causes’, which would help improve the flow of knowledge for new traders in the space.
Given that Dogecoin has little to no underlying utility, there’s not a whole lot of fundamentals that we can watch in order to determine Dogecoin’s road ahead.
Instead, DOGE has become a battleground for whales and major players to make massive trades. Despite its enormous market capitalization, Dogecoin remains an extremely volatile cryptocurrency, which means even the biggest swing traders (with net worths in the billions) can feasibly day trade this market without facing liquidity issues.
Barry Silbert is a major player in the industry: he pioneered the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which is currently the best and often only way to gain cryptocurrency exposure in a traditional portfolio on legacy platforms like stock brokerages. A publicly disclosed short position from him is indeed something to be taken seriously and with weight.
On the other hand, it appears that the person counter-trading him is Elon Musk, one of the most wealthy individuals in the world.
Based on what happens on SNL tonight, Silbert might be contending with retail investors all across the US. Although Silbert is winning his trade as of now, it’s not clear who will emerge victorious in the final analysis. Many variables are yet to play out, primarily the self-proclaimed ‘wild card’ Elon Musk. To make this battle especially interesting, Silbert has pledged to donate $1M to charity if DOGE hits $1 by the end of May, which adds even more fuel to the fire.
The price of Dogecoin is something the whole world is closely watching. As Mike Novogratz said, it’s “young people’s middle finger to the system,” and there are huge players with some big dogs (or bears!) in this fight. Regardless of what happens on Dogecoin’s road ahead, it will undoubtedly be a tale for the crypto history books.
