Dogecoin will hit a dollar, David Gokhshtein says, up from $0.25 now, and bitcoin should climb from $33,000 today to eventually reach $400,000 or $500,000.
The entrepreneur is all in on cryptocurrency and the blockchain network that powers it. He's dedicated his life to educating others about it as the CEO of the eponymous Gokhshtein Media, a cryptocurrency-focused media outlet, and PAC Global, a digital-currency payment network.
Well, he's not quite all in. Gokhshtein said 80% of his wealth was in crypto, which brought him riches and Twitter fame, but the paper "fiat" currency he distrusts is what pays his bills. Utility companies don't accept bitcoin — yet.
"This is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime transfer of wealth where everybody will be on the same playing field," Gokhshtein said in a recent interview with Insider. "I believe in the space, and that's why I'm fully invested."
Interest in crypto, money supply grow in lockstep
Decentralized finance, which sidesteps central authorities and financial institutions like governments and banks, is one of the hottest investing trends of 2021. Skepticism of central banks increased as the global money supply surged in response to the pandemic.
"I think most people woke up to the fact that we got locked down with COVID. You're watching the news. The stock market keeps going up," Gokhshtein said. "We keep printing money. Where is it coming from? If we have so much money, why can't we pay off our debts?"
The "money printing" Gokhshtein is referring to is a pejorative term for expansionary monetary policy, where central banks like the Federal Reserve increase the money supply by buying bonds from the public. Cash then flows through the economy, accelerating the economic rebound after downturns.
Expanding the money supply risks devaluing money, and while expertssay those concerns are overblown, skeptics like Gokhshtein, who said he has "no belief" in the Fed, aren't buying it.
The Fed's balance sheet had ballooned 87% as of June 16, while US money in circulation has grown 27% since March 2020, according to Fed data. That means roughly one in five dollars in circulation today was released in the past 15 months.
'Collect as much bitcoin as possible'
Bitcoin is an inflation hedge because of its limited supply of 21 million units, which means that its value shouldn't erode like the dollar's. The most famous cryptocurrency skyrocketed from $9,000 last summer to $29,000 by year's end and up to $63,000 in mid-April before tumbling 50% to the low $30,000s.
Gokhshtein said he expected bitcoin to climb to the $40,000s soon. Projecting is an imperfect science, he said, but he believes bitcoin will finish the year in the $100,000s and reach $150,000 to $200,000 in the next few years.
The crypto entrepreneur is "super bullish" on bitcoin — he's set its long-term price target at $400,000 to $500,000. But he said anything could happen, which is why he owns other cryptocurrencies.
"My goal is to collect as much bitcoin as possible, but ... you have to be diversified," Gokhshtein said.
4 coins to buy in the 'meme economy'
Bitcoin returns are muted, Gokhshtein said, when compared with hypervolatile altcoins, which can spike or crash at a moment's notice. Some, called "meme" coins, were originally jokes, but people can make and lose fortunes on them.
"Right now, we have people jumping into crypto tokens that were just created about four minutes ago," Gokhshtein said. "You only hear about the 4% that win out, and the rest are left holding bags. That will mean, and I've been stating this a lot, people will leave the space and say cryptocurrency sucks and that it's completely bulls---."
While many altcoins are frauds, Gokhshtein said he was bullish on four: Reserve Rights (RSR), VeChain (VET), Polkadot (DOT), and Cardano (ADA).
In the crypto community, selling is often met with disdain. Buyers should have "diamond hands" and hold, or "hodl" — to use the slang term popular on online forums — forever. But profit taking is necessary, Gokhshtein said, adding that he often sells 10 to 15% in a smaller coin and puts it back into bitcoin and ether.
"It's nice to have on paper," Gokhshtein said. "But if you don't have liquidity on it, it means nothing."
Dogecoin, which started as a joke, entered the year worth less than half a cent but is now up 5,400% to $0.25. It peaked in May at about $0.70, but like many crypto fanatics, Gokhshtein said he was confident it would go over a dollar.
After that, he doesn't know. But when memes of a Shiba Inu dog — the coin's mascot — can prompt billion-dollar swings, anything's possible.
"We're in the meme economy," Gokhshtein said.
