Bitcoin Aims for $100K, Ethereum ETFs & Mining Mergers Impact – Taras Kulyk

Bitcoin Aims for $100K, Ethereum ETFs & Mining Mergers Impact – Taras Kulyk

hey everyone I’m Jeremy saffron this is kiod news now before we dive into today’s discussion don’t forget to hit that subscribe button on today’s show we’re exploring some of the most pressing issues in the cryptocurrency world from the impacts of the recent Bitcoin having to the anticipated decisions on ethereum ETFs and of course the significant mergers and Acquisitions shaping the digital mining landscape now Bitcoin is currently trading between $63,000 and $64,000 showing a robust year-to-year date increase of course that’s about 50% year-to date meanwhile the ethereum community is on edge awaiting regulatory decisions investors continue to be looking for opportunities here now to help us unpack all of this we’re joined by teras Kulik he’s the founder and CEO of Sunnyside digital uh prior to founding Sunnyside terce was the SVP of growth at core scientific the largest public Bitcoin minor at the time there he originated several billion dollars in total contract value and witness firsthand the transformative friends in digital mining uh my friend thanks for joining us today thanks for having me yeah I appreciate this uh you know Terence as we just kind of talked about it’s been quite the year for Bitcoin obviously we saw that remarkable surge in value as we mentioned reflecting a significant year-to-date increase of over 50% now this impressive growth has been largely driven by the anticipation and the aftermath of the Bitcoin having event in April of course we had spot Bitcoin ETFs being approved and I’m just kind kind of curious here the Market’s response has been so robust with institutional and Retail interest peaking of course there’s economic uh you know factors such as inflation concern shift in monetary policy obviously we’ve seen a lot of people buying gold buying Bitcoin terce where are we this year in the Bitcoin world I mean it’s been quite the year well I think uh we’re still in uh in check to see some volatility that’s going to be coming down the pipe uh right now I think investors globally are really looking for a flight to safety which is why as you mentioned uh aely gold has seen an uptick a lot of the traditional staple companies have seen upticks cash flow generation has become a major trend for a lot of value investors uh and cly Bitcoin now that it’s been drisk through the uh so to speak regulatory hola Hoops that it’s jumped through uh with the ETFs and atps launching globally um you know a lot of longer term in vors are looking at Bitcoin as a stable uh asset to to park Capital um even though we see volatility coming up within uh the pricing uh it’s nowhere near what it used to be I mean before we would see 20 30% candles and no one would blink now we have you know a 2% correction and everyone’s screaming bloody murder and uh the wall is going to fall down again I mean it’s a completely different ecosystem right at this point you’ve gone almost a trillion and a half dollars or dollars of value part marked in Bitcoin um and that is not going to get smaller at this point I mean even uh I think Peter Schiff has said that bitcoin’s not going to zero he’s saying it’s only going to 20,000 now that’s a huge change of tone from what he was saying about a year ago where he was calling it a rat poison squared in in the vein of Charlie Munger right right okay well let’s talk about your price predictions and I mean you know we’re sitting here watching we as you mentioned we saw that correction healthy profit taking took place of course we saw some of the big coin going into other folks hands what’s your prediction for the future price movements in the context of you know the recent having event back in April is anything surprised you here uh well it surprised me that it’s come off as as sharply as a dead post having however it didn’t surprise me that much because we’ve actually seen quite a bit of buying uh from some of the larger accounts in the ecosystem I mean you keep seeing the memes online about the whales eating up the Guppies uh in the ocean I think that’s uh that’s going to continue happening where uh the steady smart sophisticated investors are buying BTC commodity spot at what is likely a discount to what the fair market value should be which I think right now should be around 70 grand based on the total macro ecosystem of what is going on right now and as I mentioned before I think by end of year we should see between 100,000 120,000 per BTC uh and that’s really a conservative estimate that I’m able to put you know my reputation on the line at this point saying that that’s where I personally think uh BTC will be in a very conservative uh case okay well give me a little bit about the lay of the land of what that looks like in terms of you know I mean obviously we have the ethereum ETFs looking at some approval processes here I mean when Bitcoin spot ETFs were approved the markets saw significant increase in both price and institutional adoption of Bitcoin is it going to be similar I mean we we got so much excitement here and as you said there was almost more smoke than fire when it came to having it’s it’s a more stable environment more mature yeah so ethereum still has quite a few regulatory headwinds that it needs to overcome uh there’s a few different very serious lawsuits outstanding uh from some of the folks that work with the E ethereum Founders claiming that uh the courts and the SEC have it wrong that the ethereum network is actually a security type protocol um so once those headwinds subside I think there’ll be a lot more uptick available for ethereum as a as a uh asset for folks to park Capital into uh one of the things that may have been actually taking some of the wind out of the sale of ethereum as as an asset uh is really the Innovation that’s been happening on the Bitcoin protocol um you may have heard of oral or ruins or brc2 this is allowing uh developers to build applications on top of Bitcoin as a smart contract platform uh this is extremely new an Innovative uh technological update for Bitcoin as a prot protocol um and it takes a lot of the question for developers as am I building on a stable protocol for the future and with Bitcoin with all the institutional adoption and acceptance uh they’re viewing it as the network to build on top of now even though it’s a little bit more clunky right now not as smooth uh for application development but we’re getting there we’re getting the teams developing middleware uh to be able to have the application layer built on top for new and Innovative use cases that will ultimately support Bitcoin even more into the future as it gets more and more scarce okay terus talk to me a little bit more about this new technology I mean we had somebody come on and explain ordinals I still don’t really get it so what’s the opportunity here well the opportunity is that orals provide a type of platform that we’ve come to know as nft on ethereum or Salena or some of these other protocols um an ordol is a specifically identified Satoshi which is the base layer of what a Bitcoin is comprised of for you to be able to inscribe additional information metadata so to speak uh that’s descrip that specific point of data on the Bitcoin blockchain and with that point of data you’re able to ascribe any type of additional information to that knowing that you’re forever permanently immutably ascribed onto Bitcoin and so nfts are uh basically a meme the same type of meme can be ascribed onto a Satoshi based on the metadata associated with that specific Satoshi um so it allows you to have meme coins uh the Pepe the board ape type uh I guess uh pictography that’s put onto uh ethereum right onto Bitcoin itselfin be yeah shiny object shiny newest you know dog with hat kind of stuff which for me I’m a boring pickaxes and shovel kind of guy but for the kids these days uh me and they like to trade in all sorts of Collectibles I never liked baseball cards myself but there’s a market out there for baseball cards yeah and there seems to be an Roi for them too I mean investors are doing quite well in some of these areas aren’t they yeah some of them I think uh longer term value will be held in being able to associate uh specific Satoshi with real world assets like uh real estate uh art um you know Estates these type of things that are have been historically difficult to track uh into long-term future to be able to associate that with a specific ordinal or Satoshi I think will have real world applications that will be uh brought into the fold and day-to-day use for everybody you and me or grandparents or parents um for economic use interesting yeah it’s a fascinating world I mean okay let’s go back to ethereum a little bit with the decision pending on several ETFs in that space can we expect a similar reaction if they are approved I mean you were talking about the headwinds give me a little bit of the worst case and the best case scenario here well I mean candidly the best case would probably be the same type of uptick that we saw on the Bitcoin side where if there is a regulatory approval of an ETF or an ETP uh we will see most likely a solid amount of Interest coming in on the contrary if we do see a a decline of the ability for an ETF or an ETP we may see even more uh energy and value deflated out of the ethereum network um because there’s always been this issue with centralization after proof of work was abandoned on ethereum um ethereum had a very large pre-mine meaning that the founders actually created a lot of ethereum for themselves uh before they release it to the public and with the proof of stake uh consensus mechanism is uses right now that means those Founders who haven’t sold a ton of their ethereum stake still have the ability to control the network which is the exact opposite of Bitcoin as a protocol um so these concerns are still weighing heavy not just on uh investors or folks that are looking at it as an application or protocol but The Regulators especially okay talk to me a little bit about Bitcoin miners I mean obviously this is a world that you live and breathe and you’re you’re with it I mean POS having what’s the what’s it been like what’s been been like on the minor side well it’s been a wild ride um immediately post having we had the uh Rune printing um Rune as a protocol set up on top of Bitcoin uh and what that led to was a major race to generate and create different Rune protocols on top of Bitcoin what that means is it actually increased the transaction fees that Meyers experienced and enjoyed to the fact where we had some of the highest levels of economic reward and incentive to miners for the several days almost week and a half after the having took Place wow um since then we’ve actually seen the transaction fee value absolute and relative drop to where uh you know a lot of the conservative folks were expecting it to go um but not below which is the most important part is a lot of the economic pain that has been felt by minors no one’s surprised by it people have been preparing and contemplating this type of hash price for the last two years um and as I mentioned before in different podcasts a lot of the pain and Leverage has been taken out of the system so a lot of miners actually healthier now than they were 6 months 9 months 12 months ago um as we saw the string of insolvencies that that happened at that time yeah and you’d think that they would keep happening I mean it’s an interesting development there’s ongoing advancements in Bitcoin mining technology particularly improvements in Energy Efficiency and processing power is this how these miners are staying together I mean how does the Innovation affect profitability uh well you said it really well there actually um Bitcoin mining has actually been incre increasing its efficiency and improving its productivity over the past call it eight years since it started um the thing is is we’ve been catching up to existing silicon technology for that time we are now at the point over the last call it 8 to 12 months where Bitcoin mining technology or as6 uh application specific integrated circuit technology is now caught up to the most advanced silicon technology that’s used by the likes of Apple Samsung Google Microsoft so we’re now actually using 3 nanometer chips meaning that the semiconductors on the actual chips themselves are infinitely smaller than they were when we originally started um and so we have been seeing these major leaps in efficiency up till now however now that we’re actually hitting the wall of technological innovation we’re only going to see incremental increases efficiency until we come up with a new type of semiconductor technology because we’re already at the very edge of it um for the major manufacturers in particular bit main Technologies okay so what does this mean for the miners I mean there’s going to be a lot out there that gets swallowed up analysts predicting a significant increase in m&a activity within the space this year into next year obviously this is efficiency and scale uh what are you seeing here is it going to be consolidation or are companies just getting smarter and and adapting different use cases going forward I think a little bit of a a little bit of b um right now as we mentioned earlier the sector’s actually maturing quite rapidly um so generally when a sector consolidates putting on my b school hat uh you usually see a lot of consolidation in the space so um larger players acquiring smaller players cleaning out uh GNA to increase efficiency from a performance perspective and operations perspective um or you see smaller guys in with other smaller guys so that they can actually gain scale to be relevant to the market the problem is is as the market matures the smaller folks won’t have enough oxygen to breathe to be able to stay relevant so you will we will see over the next 12 to 18 months more consolidation from a merger perspective but certainly more Acquisitions from an acquisition perspective and the reason being is because the larger folks have been actually hitting the market with ATMs at the money Equity raises and some of them have large chunks of capital that they’re ready and actively looking to deploy for well-priced assets you look at marathon’s been active clean Spark’s been active Riot’s been active course scientific my former Al marter is finally emerging from this chapter 11 and they’re likely going to be active in the near term because of the scale that they actually have on operations some of the newer folks like Iris Cipher Etc they’re also likely looking for lower cost likely distressed assets for some of the folks that you know Arn as bullish on the ecosystem and are looking to get an exit to a larger player um the other side that you mentioned is uh diversification of revenue streams we’ve seen a lot of folks in the in the Bitcoin mining environment start looking at Ai and HPC this isn’t a trend this is actually a fundamental shift in operations and the reason being it’s not because they’re wanting to apply Bitcoin mining to AI it’s because AI is actually getting more energy intensive and getting closer to Bitcoin mining than it has been historically and the good thing is is the Bitcoin miners their technology teams and technicians are better versed at managing large scale power than the traditional HPC data center operators and so there will be a natural fit for some but not all Bitcoin miners to be able to expand and grow into the HPC AI business yeah do you do you see a lot of the miners just you know basically redoing their business model and saying okay we’re just going to apply this power to Ai and Tech it’s just going to be you know more liquidity in the future it’s a better runway for us more opportunity or they really into just sticking with inside of the crypto Community that’s a great question um that’s more of like a religious question for a lot of these folks yeah exactly it is it really is some are purist where they say no we are Bitcoin miners to the core uh we are fundamentally going to be battling some of these HPC folks for the better power purchase agreements and there’s others that are a little bit more capitalistic more mer more mercenary as to how they view their business models and they’ll say hey it’s wherever the best irr fits into our overall business model regardless of where we view Bitcoin or HPC generally as independent segments of e of the economy um so it’s really based on the management team and you have to do your own research as to what the management team has been pushing into the market um and you know there’s some well-known examples like Iris energy they just put in a a release says to their operational update you know that they’re very keen on having a dual-headed strategy between Bitcoin mining as well as HPC and Ai and they’ve got a fantastic team that’s going to help them do so core scientific again my alma moer announced aund million HPC hosting contract because they have the experience and expertise in house to manage HPC and AI compute uh within their infrastructure so I think it really is based on the management team and investors need to do their research as to what that management team has put out based on the approval from their board of directors right and it does sound like you that some of the larger guys at least on the scale side might be in this one to win it I mean is that what I’m hearing we’ve seen this consolidation take place in other sectors but when that happens investors usually have an opportunity to make some good Roi is this where it is amen and I think right now the Bitcoin mining uh public companies uh are deeply discounted to where they likely will be if a bull run does start uh we’ve seen a few companies really uptick on their valuation bit Farms clean spark for example have really had pretty strong runs over the little while um unfortunately my Alon back to core is still a lagger when it comes to multiples versus the other uh companies in the public markets I think they’ll probably see a larger uptick and I’m you know I’m very supportive and I’m not giving investment advice but I’m a big fan of core it’s actually in my uh personal portfolio um but I also do think that investors looking at the space could see potentially a very strong uptick in multiple expansion as as the market picks up and likely BTC starts running post uh having as it has done historically over the past four or five Cycles nice well said and where’s that BTC price going one more time terce I would still say between 100 to 125 by the end of the year um and that’s likely in a conservative case I mean again you go back to the historical precedence and it’s a multiple of that but I’m trying to you know hedge my b speak on BTC pricing yeah I wish I had a crystal ball I just know that uh it’s a stable industry with some very strong people in it and uh really proud to be part of it nice yeah a lot of people shopping for those discounted prices on the evaluation side too teras kulak thanks again for coming on Founder and CEO of sunnide digital joining us today uh thanks man I look forward to talking to you again soon usually thanks guys appreciate it I’m Jeremy saffron for all of us here at Kitco news thanks for tuning in don’t forget to subscribe share our Channel and we’ll see you next time [Music]

Jeremy Szafron, Anchor at Kitco News, interviews Taras Kulyk, Founder & CEO of SunnySide Digital, about the transformative trends shaping the cryptocurrency landscape in 2024. Kulyk shares his insights on the recent Bitcoin halving’s impact on the market, the anticipated regulatory decisions on Ethereum ETFs, and the dynamic mergers and acquisitions within the digital mining sector. Discover Taras’s bold predictions for Bitcoin’s price movement towards the $100K mark, his analysis of Ethereum’s potential in the face of regulatory challenges, and how technological advancements are redefining mining efficiency.

Follow Jeremy Szafron on X: @JeremySzafron (https://twitter.com/JeremySzafron)
Follow Kitco News on X: @KitcoNewsNOW (https://twitter.com/kitconewsnow)
Follow Taras Kulyk on X: @tmskulyk (https://twitter.com/tmskulyk)

0:00 – Introduction
1:53 – Bitcoin’s Performance and Market Trends in 2024
3:21 – Bitcoin Price Post-Halving
5:16 – Challenges and Potential of Ethereum ETFs
7:14 – Innovations in Bitcoin Technology
9:02 – The Impact of Regulatory Changes on Ethereum
10:30 – Developments in Bitcoin Mining and Efficiency
13:16 – Mergers and Acquisitions in the Crypto Mining Sector
16:04 – Future Trends and Predictions in Cryptocurrency

#Bitcoin #Ethereum #CryptoNews #DigitalMining #ETFs #CryptoInvesting #BitcoinMining #BlockchainTechnology #KitcoNews #TarasKulyk #crypto #ethetf #Gold #economy
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