Bitcoin [BTC] has “real traction” as a store of value amidst economic crisis, says Reddit Co-Founder

Alexis Ohanian, the Co-Founder of Initialized Capital and Reddit, spoke to Yahoo Finance in a recent interview about his “deep interest in cryptocurrencies”, and why he was bullish on them despite fluctuations in price. He also spoke about his investment in Coinbase and interest in building the infrastructure for a world of cryptocurrency.

Ohanian began by speaking about how he got into the cryptocurrency market, quoting the reason as being his partner Gary Tan. He stated that Tan was the first on the scene due to his belief in the space, and spoke about his investment in Coinbase. He stated:

“[Tan] made the initial bet on Brian Armstrong before he even had a co-founder, and in the earliest days of Coinbase and so its to Gary’s credit actually that we’ve been there early and we’ve made some other investments since.”

Ohanian also spoke about his investment in a company known as DyDx, a decentralized exchange for derivatives. The platform has had investments from Brian Armstrong as well and aims to provide short and leveraged products for Ethereum [ETH] and other ERC20 tokens.

When asked about his expectations for Bitcoin [BTC], Ohanian responded that it was a good store of value for countries with unstable currencies. He went on to say:

“Right now as a store of value there is some real traction. And actually, as we are seeing countries like Turkey that are having significant economic crisis.”

He predicted a movement of value into Bitcoin due to it’s relative stability to certain fiat currencies. He said:

“We’re going to see money  move over to Bitcoin because as unstable as it is, it is actually a lot more stable for a lot of people then their own nation’s.”

On the general state of the cryptocurrency market, he said that it was in the “earliest, earliest stages”. He went on to state that it was going to be a while until it is a part of the mainstream in countries like the United States. He spoke about Coinbase, stating:

“A company like Coinbase is in a great position to help us get there because a lot of it ends up being a user interface standpoint. It ends up being, can this be friendly enough [or] useful enough, that I can go to my dad and say: Here is why you should be using this.”

Recently, Brian Armstrong said in an interview that Coinbase is adding new users. When asked about how he interprets that trend, and whether it was reassuring for him, he said:

“I think it is, because no matter what the currency prices are doing, seeing more and more people creating accounts definitely shows more and more adoptions. Their endgame is to be this interface between people and their fiat money and crypto, and to be the most user-friendly, trusted, safe, and secure way to do it.”

On market and price movements, Ohanian stated that he does not pay attention to volatility and that they were looking to invest in the infrastructure. He stated:

“We try not to pay too much attention to currency fluctuations. We want to invest in the picks and shovels. We have the infrastructure that’s just getting started. This is what needs to be built in order for us  to have the Web 3.0 we all dream of.”