Eric Finman: “BTC and LTC will die, but ETH and ZEC will live”

Teen crypto star Erik Finman has said Bitcoin (BTC) “may have a bull market or two left in it,” but that “long-term, it’s dead,” in an interview with financial news site MarketWatch on Dec. 17. Finman is famous for his precocious investment in Bitcoin back in 2011, when he reportedly bought in — at the age of twelve — at $12 a coin. The high schooler’s $1,000 gift from his grandmother thus became over $4 million during the cryptocurrency’s 2017 all-time price highs. Finman sealed further fame by notoriously winning a bet with his parents that if he became a crypto millionaire before the age of 18, he could opt out of going to college.

In his interview with MarketWatch, the still-teenage Finman remarked, “Bitcoin is dead, it’s too fragmented, there’s tons of infighting I just don’t think it will last.” He gave a similarly grim forecast for Litecoin (LTC), the altcoin founded by Charlie Lee: “Litecoin has been dead for a while. It’s like when the sun is going down and there’s that eight minute period just before it goes dark. Litecoin is in its seventh minute.”

More optimism went to “project-based” coins such as Ethereum (ETH) and anonymity-oriented token Zcash (ZEC), with Finman reserving positive comments for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) — notwithstanding its recent controversial hard fork — affirming his belief in the coin’s technology. The teen also reportedly railed against “the hooks and lobbyists” of Wall Street; buoyed by his early success, he told MarketWatch, “I’m better at this kind of stuff than those millionaires. […] They don’t know how to work the system, they’re nerds. I’m more than that.” According to Cointelegraph’s price indexes, as of press time Bitcoin is trading at $3,611 — up 10 percent on the day but down more than 36 percent on the month. Litecoin is up over 16 percent on the day to trade at $30 but has shed over 30 percent in value on its monthly chart.