Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin trading right above 86,000 remaining below the 90,000 mark for the second day in a row. Now when it comes to the most recent declines, we're seeing Bitcoin trade at levels that we haven't seen since November. When you take a look at the pull pull back that we've seen over the last couple of trading days. Now this follows the rally that we saw following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, also some of the excitement following his election back in November which set, which sent the prices to record highs. Here with more on what we could expect going forward, we want to bring in Scott Melker. He's the host of the Wolf of All Streets Podcast. Scott, it's great to have you back here on Yahoo Finance. Help us make sense of some of that selling action that we have seen in Bitcoin most recently.

Well, I think that there are a few catalysts for the selling. First, obviously, as you mentioned, we overshot probably the high end on hype around Trump hitting a high of around 109,000. I think the market is now absorbing most of that and finding a mean reversion of sorts. But I think there's a few catalysts that have been sending price down at the moment. Obviously, there's just macro fears in general of tariffs, of instability, markets hate uncertainty, and I think we're seeing that to some degree with Bitcoin and the crypto crypto market as a whole. We had the BuyBit hack of roughly $1.5 billion in Ethereum by the Lazarus group in North Korea. I think most of Wall Street and institutional investors didn't know about that until they woke up on Monday. That's probably contributed to the sell-off. And then, of course, the absolute meme coin madness with Trump launching a coin, then the Libra token debacle in Argentina. We've just had some short-term catalysts for downside that I think will be relatively quickly absorbed, and then we can get back to the bull market that we're used to.

To to what extent do you believe that there is still trust that needs to be reinstilled coming off of some of the other meme coin events that have taken place, even from the voice that said that they were going to be the pro-crypto president and that we've got a Bitcoin strategic reserve that's going to be prioritized day one?

We have to remember that those things were effectively priced in as promises. So now you need to see Trump and his team deliver on them, and I think that largely we have. There's really high expectations. We have a pro-Bitcoiner in almost every cabinet position that exists in the White House. We have pro-Bitcoiners at the SEC, CFTC, literally across the board. So those promises are being made, and we do have legislation on the books for that strategic Bitcoin reserve. Uh I think the meme coin craze will be forgotten. I think it's also important to remember Libra technically not even a meme coin at all, literally just a pump and dump by a government or the leader of a government. But it was promising specific utility to help businesses in Argentina, very different than meme coins, which are literally described as having no utility as collectibles. But I don't think that there's a huge amount of trust that needs to be uh gained back. I think those things, as I said, will just disappear into the ether. They're just a non-sensical sideshow uh to the game. Everybody understands now that Bitcoin itself and crypto are here to stay. They're serious institutional assets. When you have Citadel talking about coming in to become a market maker, I think that a few meme coins will be forgotten.

Scott, when it comes to certainly obviously the street, Wall Street and Main Street very much are showing more interest within crypto. I'm curious when you take a look just at the fact the volatility swings and you can obviously make this argument for many investment vehicles out there, but what does that do? Does that at all, do you think, keep some investors on the sidelines, just given how rapid of a run-up we had following the election, peaking right around the inauguration. Now we've been selling off just a bit. I guess, how should investors then be looking at when is the right opportunity to buy?

I don't think that investors should be trying to time the market or find the right opportunity, because, as you said, it is volatile. That may keep some people on the sidelines, but I think that that number is drastically reducing. Listen, I mean, volatility is the price of admission for exponential gains in Bitcoin, and it's not really that different if you buy at 86 or you buy at 80 or you buy at 75, if you believe it's going into the multiple hundred thousands or millions with time. The best strategy is to go full Michael Saylor and dollar cost average slowly into Bitcoin when you have money that you're willing to invest and not touch for a long time. So I would urge people not to really be concerned with whether the price is 86 or 82 or 90, because long term, that will effectively be a nothing burger. I mean, I would argue that Bitcoin hasn't crashed, it's on sale. And we know that smart money buys the blood, even if it's their own, and that's what's happening right now. You can see that there's some retail exiting, but institutions are gobbling up Bitcoin at an unprecedented pace.

Scott, thank you. We're continuing to track all the moves here this morning. Appreciate it.