Private Crypto Markets Are Booming Although Short Term Metrics Are Panic Inducing, Says FTX US President

• Brett Harrison says the private crypto market is booming.
• He noted that Bitcoin’s dominance is bound to drop. 
• Harrison revealed that regulatory ambiguity is standing in the way of large-scale institutional adoption. 

Brett Harrison, the president of FTX US, joined CNBC’s Squawk Box during the Super Bowl to talk about crypto. During the interview, the crypto executive discussed the state of the markets and his outlook on Bitcoin, amongst other things. 

Private Crypto Markets Are Booming 

During the Super Bowl interview, Brett Harrison disclosed that at the moment there seems to be some skepticism in the markets as investors monitor the situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine, adding to the fact that the market has been slow for a couple of months now. However, Harrison revealed that the private markets were booming, especially the crypto market. 

“I think there is a lot of short-term anxiety, seeing what’s going on with Russia and Ukraine, just the general slow down of markets in the last say 1 to 2 months. But we are seeing, especially on the crypto side, the private markets are booming, people are investing a ton in the space, and so we think the longer-term outlook is pretty positive.”

Brett Harrison agreed that at the moment, there was some correlation between the crypto market and other markets, but noted that it was to be expected in a period of general risk-off sentiment. He said, “I think in risk-off situations everything is correlated; all correlations go to one when people are generally afraid of what’s happening in the market.” 

When asked about Bitcoin, the executive said while as an exchange operator he could not give a definitive stance, in the long term, he believes the outlook is positive. Harrison revealed that while at the moment, Bitcoin still maintains some dominance in terms of the market cap, the dominance has steadily been on the decline, and so, in the long run, he expects that no single asset, say Bitcoin, will dominate the market share. 

In the course of the interview, it was revealed that though a lot of pension funds and family offices have shown interest in the crypto market, many are yet to actually invest. Harrison revealed that the exchange had a lot of discussions with these institutions and the concerns remained the same around regulations and compliance.  

The Crypto Bowl

As crypto adoption and recognition continues to increase, crypto exchanges are increasing their efforts to get crypto to new audiences. Exchanges like Crypto.com and FTX have pursued brand sponsorships and naming deals. 

In the just concluded Super Bowl, crypto companies made headlines after over 6 companies secured slots to play ads to hundreds of millions of viewers streaming the event. This led to the Super Bowl LVI being dubbed the Crypto Bowl.

After an almost 3-month long period of correction, several pundits believe that the crypto market might be starting to reverse. The markets have seen four consistent weeks of institutional inflow, and once again today, Bitcoin crossed the $44,000 mark.