“Bitcoin is and has always been a secular trade. It’s a very cyclical asset — it goes through these cycles of ups and downs, highs and lows. [...] I think in the next 24 months, we will see new all-time highs in Bitcoin.”

Biography:

Born into a family of immigrants from a Turkish farming community, Meltem Demirors has embraced risk throughout her life, reflected in a career that has included stints at firms such as Tradax Energy, Dow Chemical, Deloitte Consulting and even Digital Currency Group, where she served as director of development. Since 2018, she has been the chief strategy officer at CoinShares, Europe’s largest digital asset investment and trading group, while also serving as a guest lecturer at the MIT Media Lab and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Blockchain.

Having been introduced to Bitcoin investing by Barry Silbert, she rose to the position of vice president at DCG before moving on to CoinShares, where she oversees the management of digital assets. Demirors has also personally invested in blockchain projects such as Blockade Games, XMTP, ClayStack, Syndicate, SmartDeFi, Showtime, Upshot and many others.

Demirors has been featured on many talk shows, conferences, TV programs and Raoul Pal’s Real Vision, cementing her status as one of the most influential personalities in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. She is also passionate about protecting civil and privacy rights, which complements her pro-crypto perspective and highlights her belief in blockchain technology as a harbinger of equity in the online world.

Demirors’ 2022:

In 2022, Demirors championed the inclusion of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in traditional financial markets, believing that the day is close when cryptocurrencies like Ether will be used to secure margin funding from financial institutions. She promoted firms such as Casa and Ejara that are bringing self-custodial investment and savings solutions to underbanked people, especially in African countries that continue to face low rates of financial inclusion.

At the same time, Demirors didn’t shy away from responding to the crypto industry’s toughest challenges and was often found sharing her take on matters by using memes on Twitter. Batting for a shift to green energy to reduce crypto’s carbon footprint, Demirors advocated for innovating materials and methods rather than relying on the common approach of financialized carbon credits. She reiterated her vision for crypto, wherein collective knowledge creation, categorization and preservation will eventually lead to the sustenance of an eternal house of wisdom independent of centralized control and truly belonging to the masses.

Demirors’ 2023:

One of Demirors’ biggest predictions for 2023 is that Bitcoin will retrace its fall from glory and restart another bull cycle. She pegged the world’s leading cryptocurrency to surpass the $30,000 mark in 2023 and is confident that it will eventually go on to record a new all-time high in 2024 — or even 2023 if macroeconomic data supports a resumption in institutional investor appetite.

Demirors is expected to contribute to developing a set of policy recommendations on how the crypto and blockchain industry should be regulated, with both governmental agencies and industry bodies working toward representing the interests of the crypto ecosystem. She also believes that cryptocurrencies will form the foundation for future rewards programs, thereby controlling the lion’s share of a $100 billion market that includes top fintech firms, credit card programs and even Fortune 500 companies among its top clientele.