YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Another record was set Wednesday by the price of Bitcoin. How many of you understand it? Many don’t, but a local financial advisor believes you need to learn more about it.
Ray Housteau watches the financial station for a Bitcoin price — another record-setting day. He is a financial advisor and was a Bitcoin doubter at first, but he studied it and read a paper about the blockchain technology Bitcoin is based on.
“I read that and I was blown away because I wanted to find a reason to tell people this was garbage and I couldn’t,” Housteau said. “I absolutely advise everybody to do your homework on it, to research this. It is something that you need to know and learn about.”
Housteau can’t say whether you should buy it or not. Every person’s situation is different. He believes demand for Bitcoin right now is based on two things. The SEC approved it for exchange-traded products, and Donald Trump embraced digital assets.
According to the Associated Press, Trump pledged to make America “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of Bitcoin. His campaign accepted donations in cryptocurrency and he courted crypto fans at a bitcoin conference in July. He also launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies.
“Bitcoin is the network itself. So the government can’t control it, a bank can’t control it. The central banks can’t control it, and that’s part of the reason that people are excited about it,” Housteau said.
Bitcoin seemed more like a gaming token and novelty investment when it was started 15 years ago. Now, it’s recognized like other investments that are centuries old. Housteau believes Bitcoin has proven that it’s here to stay.
“Right up there with silver, gold and everything else,’ Housteau said. “It’s like gold. Only It’s much more efficient than gold. You don’t have to pay to store it; you don’t have to pay to transport it; you don’t have to pay to protect it. With gold, you can’t cut slivers off to pay for things. All those you can do with Bitcoin.”
There will only be 21 million Bitcoin mined. There are 56 million millionaires around the world. If every one of them wanted to own a full Bitcoin, they couldn’t.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
