Wes Fulford, CEO of Viridi Funds, breaks down how several key headlines, include President Biden's executive order on crypto and rising inflation, are impacting the price of major cryptocurrencies during a volatile period.

Closing Bell

Multitude of Factors Contributing to Volatility in Crypto Space

Well one word that sums up the crypto market certainly is volatility. So for example, Bitcoin the most valuable digital token. A plummeting from above 68,000 in November. It speak to below 40,000 just two months later. But with events like that and of course what we see in Ukraine inflation still persisting is more turbulence ahead for joining me now is wes Fulford ceo of charity funds and investment advisor focused on providing modern eco friendly investment products. Thank you so much for joining. So of course there are a lot of headwinds out there in the markets these days, certainly impacting Wall Street Main Street and are really countries just all over the globe. President biden's Executive order on crypto playing a role though in shaping this market as well. How will this shape the future of the space? I think I mean the executive order was obviously big news or or not big news um last week and just just demonstrating that the U. S. Recognizes this is an emerging sort of sector that they need to get in front of. And I think the overall tone of the narrative was positive in our view, really looking at um you know how to how to regulate and create a transparency of operating environment for existing companies and startups. Um It would certainly more of a measure twice cut once style pace to the to the narrative giving a lot of the Regulatory body is 180 days to respond. Mhm. So the expectation West I think coming into this year is that more regulation is better for the crypto world more recognition, more rules and guardrails set in place would open up Cryptocurrency to some big pocketed investors and make it more of a household name a household of asset that is. Do you still agree with that? Just about three months into this year? Of course, as we saw biden's executive order, do you think more regulation is still positive for the space? Just more transparency around an operating environment and some of the sort of key operational details that that need to be adhered to standing up products in the space. I mean we're we're running a publicly listed TTF focused on investing in Cryptocurrency miners on on the NyC in particular rigs. Um You know, we operate under the lens of the sec in terms of diversification protocols, continuous disclosure etcetera. How we allocate the assets within the portfolio, like intend to marry traditional financial markets to an emerging and nascent sector um and look broader or sort of more transparent confines or disclosure on regulatory lenses or the landscape in general. Is this going to lead to further product innovation? I think it's an overall that positive. You know, we did see crypto effectively act as a hedge against inflation as we were getting some of those sky high 40 year high inflation reports earlier this year. That was a positive for crypto. A lot of people looking at it as the new gold a hedge to some extent if prices do continue to rise, but the threat of inflation isn't going anywhere and yet Crypto is kind of stabilized at these levels. And so do you think the argument that it is a hedge against inflation is one that really sticks and could provide actually a tailwind behind Bitcoin in the year ahead In theory. Absolute. I mean this is a you have to step back and recognize the fact this is a 13 year old protocol and in the broader landscape of sectoral innovation and growth, this is this is a new sector, it's emerging, it's got a lot of momentum and positive support these new developments. Um you saw the Bridgewater announcement 24 hours ago, he said the goldman trade yesterday as well, like there's institutions flocking to the sector and it's largely driven by client demand. People recognize inflation or stagflation is real. You can't you know, be base that the fiat currencies across the globe with tied to stimulus printing, um pandemic driven stimulus printing without sort of inflationary consequences and Bitcoin with its predictable supply. The tangible input cost that goes into creating new Bitcoin. Um You know, the transparent nature of the network decentralized nature of the network not tied to the printing presses of any particular macro government. Um It's the sort of value proposition has never been stronger and people are looking for stores of value to to protect the wealth and their hard earned income. All right. Wes we appreciate the time. I hope you come back on the show. That's West Full 40 is the ceo of relief funds.