Backlash Builds After CNBC’s Becky Quick Ridicules ‘Lottery Ticket’ Bitcoin
Sign up here. Get Exclusive Analysis and Investing Ideas of Future Assets on Hacked.com. Join the community today and get up to $400 in discount by using the code: «CCN+Hacked». Nobody has been harder on bitcoin than the mainstream financial media, particularly during the crypto winter. CNBC’s Becky Quick Ridicules Bitcoin
Becky Quick’s disdain of bitcoin began to seep through in a television interview with Fundstrat’s Tom Lee on Squawk Box. At first, the CNBC anchor’s concerns were reasonable enough surrounding how Lee came about a fair value price for bitcoin. Tensions quickly escalated, however, at least for the audience, when Quick called his recommendation for investors to make a 1%-2% allocation to bitcoin “crazy.” [embedded content]
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She continued her tirade on Twitter after follower Eric Weiss, the founder of hedge fund Blockchain Investment Group, called her out on the “crazy” remark, in response to which Quick quipped,
“Are we talking bitcoin? Or lottery tickets? Or lottery tickets? Prior to joining CNBC, she worked for The Wall Street Journal. What’s disappointing is that she came across not only cynical but also shortsighted, possibly even insincere. That is unless she really doesn’t get that unlike the lottery, crypto is much more than a get-rich scheme. Bitcoin was born out of the trenches of the Financial Crisis when people’s faith in the economy was shattered, not to mention the size of their retirement accounts. You think BTC and the digital asset class has a 1 in 300million shot at being valued in the trillions? How is fiat money, which is also not backed by anything other than the government’s word, any different? Besides, if Quick’s concern is investors allocating their retirement funds toward a risky asset such as bitcoin, shouldn’t she be equally outraged that they might invest in a high-yield junk bond or complex forex instrument? Stocks were an emerging asset class once, too. Further still, the New York Stock Exchange-backed ICE is launching bitcoin futures exchange, Bakkt. If bitcoin is good enough for the NYSE, whose modest beginning was in 1792 under a Buttonwood tree, why isn’t it good enough for investors? She covered the launch of bitcoin futures, pointing out that at the time the BTC price spiked more than $1,000 in response. And for those who are convinced that bitcoin is a fraud, her response? Then short it. Maybe CNBC’s Quick should take a page out of her rival’s book and educate her audience about bitcoin rather than scaring them. [embedded content]
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