Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas tells Yahoo Finance Live enthusiasm on all things crypto remains high amongst various types of investors despite prices across the board mostly being well off record highs.
“I don’t think we’ve seen any change in interest in the overall crypto space,” Haas said. “Crypto people in general are very long-term focused and are thinking about how this technology changes the way that we interact with financial assets, how this technology changes like the future of the web and innovation.”
Despite the promise of bitcoin, the benchmark crypto has been swept up into the broader risk-off environment that has gripped risky assets in the tech space this year.
Bitcoin prices hit a record high on Nov. 9 of $69,000, but have since dropped 38% to about $43,000. Prices hit as low as $35,000 in late January as the broader markets tanked on interest rate hiking fears.
Other well-known and heavily traded cryptos haven’t been spared by a more volatile backdrop for risk assets
Ethereum is down 35% from its early November 2021 highs, while Shibu Inu has been more than cut in half since its late October peak.
“I think that right now what we’re seeing is the overall macroeconomic conditions and investors broadly are taking a risk off approach looking to move their money to safer asset classes. And, crypto in general is viewed as a more high risk growth asset class,” explained Haas.
The crypto sell-off has extended to shares of companies with outsized exposure to the space such as Coinbase.
Coinbase and Robinhood shares are down 21% and 20%, respectively this year, according to Yahoo Finance Plus data. Block’s stock (formerly known as Square) is down 36% year to date.
Haas isn’t alone in the crypto industry in arguing for patience with cryptocurrency prices.
“My time horizon is a decade or more,” bitcoin bull and MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor said on Yahoo Finance Live. “People buy bitcoin because they want to buy an asset they understand that might have value in 100 years. The truth is there is no security trading on the Nasdaq of the New York Stock Exchange right now that you can understand 100 years from now.”
