Over the decade-long history of Bitcoin, the popular digital asset has been called everything from a money launder’s tool to the first-ever truly global currency.

But, although Bitcoin’s definition has undoubtedly changed over the years due to the whims of investors and industry leaders, many still believe that BTC is on the cusp of becoming digital gold — a digitized asset that isn’t correlated to traditional markets, holds value over extended periods of time, and is hard to come by.

Bitcoin Isn’t Digital Gold Yet

After taking a week-long hiatus from discussing crypto assets, CNBC Fast Money finally carved out some time to discuss this nascent industry on Thursday, calling on a well-established industry insider to lend his expertise to viewers of the show.

A month of calm trading for #bitcoin has investors asking, 'Is it finally digital gold?' @MichaelMoro gives his take. pic.twitter.com/h9FcM3MXId — CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) October 18, 2018

Dubbing the segment “mellow yellow,” CNBC host Melissa Lee began by welcoming Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Global Trading, onto the Fast Money panel. Quickly getting to the point, Lee asked Moro the age-old question — is Bitcoin digital gold?

Responding, Moro noted that one of the crypto asset’s long-standing positive characteristics is its non-correlation with capital markets, as Bitcoin rarely moves off the back of the price action seen in global stock markets, for example. Although pure non-correlation is a characteristic seen with the value of physical gold, the investor added that Bitcoin’s classification as a legitimate form of digital gold is still up for debate, noting:

“Whether Bitcoin is ultimately a digital form of gold, I think that question is still very much an open-ended question. I do think that investors believe that it is digital gold and use that as a case to buy the asset, but it needs to prove itself as digital gold.”

However, seeing that there is a strong movement behind Bitcoin’s use case as a digitized store of value, Moro added that BTC could likely be in the midst of gaining its status as digital gold as he spoke.

Michael Moro: BTC At $10,000 Is Still In The Cards

Drawing attention to Genesis Capital’s recent report on its in-house digital asset lending platform, Brian Kelly questioned the investor if data gathered by Genesis’ loan business indicates that the crypto market is starting to establish the long-awaited bottom.

According to the CEO, out of the $130 million in active loans issued by Genesis, only one-third of those funds are being used to actively short the market, which led Moro to the conclusion that short-sellers aren’t behind the deflation of late-2017’s crypto bubble. Instead, the great mind behind the New York-based fintech firm explained that it is the “natural holders” who have been liquidating their cryptocurrency holdings en-masse, not pessimistic retail and institutional investors.

Bouncing off this thought process, the investor doubled-down on his original Bitcoin prediction, which was that BTC was set to surpass $10,000 a pop. Moro closed out his time on CNBC by stating:

“The last time I was on this show, I said that we were more likely to see $10,000 in Bitcoin then $5,000. So far, I’m not wrong. So I am still sticking by that prediction. Because of what we are seeing in the ebbs and flows on the loans side [of our business] I have that confidence that I don’t think we will see $5,000 flat. [However,] timing wise, I am not too sure when this is going to happen.”

Although Moro worded his prediction with the precision of a surgeon to stay away from conveying exact dates or price targets, with institutional involvement in this industry reaching new all-time highs on a week-on-week basis, some claim that $10,000 by year’s end isn’t too far out of the realm of possibility.

Featured Image From Shutterstock