Bitcoin in 2017: What the experts said about cryptocurrencies
One more year came to an end and, as always, the world of cryptocurrencies has been part of a huge amount of controversial testimonies. Today, January 1, in Bitcoin Newspaper, we review what many figures of the financial industry had to say about Bitcoin in 2017.
Bitcoin has entered a bubble? Or will its price continue to rise in this new year? Reputed bankers, economists and investors expressed the most varied criteria in the last 12 months: some think that users should keep their funds, yes, but others maintain that the Bitcoin alarm is already on and that attention should be paid to it. Below, a list of the most outstanding opinions that we read last year - many of them were published in Bitcoin Newspaper:
Peter Schiff:
One of the few advisors who predicted the 2008 housing crisis, Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, is not willing to extend his love of money to Bitcoin. In fact, the economist does not expect most people to sell on time, since on August 17, when the most popular cryptocurrency quoted USD $ 4,000, he told CoinDesk:
It is true that there is a lot of optimism about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but that is what happens with bubbles - the psychology of their essence is what keeps feeding them; that is, with the price increases the user is more convinced that the project will work, but there are few who consider that all this is due to speculation. "
Jamie Dimon:
In September, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that Bitcoin is a fraud and that its followers will one day pay the price. Specifically, his opinion was:
It is a fraud, it is worse than the crisis of the tulips of the seventeenth century. It will not end well, someone will die. People think that cryptocurrencies are invincible, but the truth is that the larger they are, the more governments will close them. "
Ray Dalio:
The founder of the hedge fund company, Bridgewater Associates, gave his opinion on Bitcoin in an interview on September 19. At that time the cryptoactive was still moving around USD $ 4,000.
According to Dalio:
Bitcoin, unlike gold, can not be qualified as a store of wealth because it has volatility. It's a highly speculative market ... it's a bubble. "
John Hathaway:
On September 21, John Hathaway, an investor at Tocqueville Asset Management, referred to cryptocurrencies as "junk," arguing that their media power is false and that they are not negatively impacting gold investments.
According to Hathaway:
Of course when it comes to bubbles you can make money at any time, but at some point you will have to leave. Let's not forget that the capitalization of cryptocurrencies is about USD $ 180 billion or a little less, and that's very small compared to gold. "
Jordan Belfort:
The well-known "Wolf of Wall Street" supported Jamie Dimon in October:
I'm not saying you have to buy Bitcoin or not, but I personally would be very careful about investing a lot of money in an asset that could lose all its value very quickly. "
Warren Buffett:
That same month, when the value of Bitcoin touched the USD $ 5,700 mark, billionaire Warren Buffett attacked the most popular crypto-active in a question and answer session.
People get excited about the big price movements and Wall Street adapts. It is not possible to value Bitcoin because it is not an asset that produces value. "
Tidjane Thiam:
During the first week of November, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam made a statement at a press conference. At that time Bitcoin had broken the market of USD $ 7,000.
The only reason to buy or sell Bitcoin is to earn money, which is the very definition of speculation and bubble. "
Carl Icahn:
In an interview conducted on December 1, the founder of Icahn Enterprises, Carl Icahn, said that for him Bitcoin - at that time its value was USD $ 10,000 - is nothing more than a bubble, and also compared the digital currency with the Mississippi real estate bubble just before its collapse.
I tell you with sincerity: I do not understand it, I just do not understand it. If I do not understand something, it's as simple as not getting involved. "
Bill Miller:
Despite many controversial opinions, the legendary investor Bill Miller provided a different view, saying that he believes in cryptocurrencies and that his MVP1 fund increased its load in Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin almost 50%. Miller commented in a podcast that his fund bought BTC in 2013 and 2014, when the price was USD $ 350. At that time the investment in Bitcoin only represented 5% of the group.
Also, Miller pointed out that criptomoney detractors, such as Warren Buffet and Jamie Dimon, have not thought well on the subject.
I am very confident when I say that none of them has studied the subject in depth; that is, they have very radical opinions about something they really do not know. "
Mike Novogratz:
The former director of Fortress Investment Group, a fund with great interest in Bitcoin, adopted a more opportunistic approach, since he agreed that on September 26 he would launch a fund of USD $ 500,000,000 that will focus on cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology; that Bitcoin day fell to USD $ 3,000 because of China's decisions regarding ICO.
Novogratz qualified:
This is going to be the biggest bubble of our lives. The prices will go much further than they should. "
It should be noted that the economist canceled the plans for the fund, but remains optimistic about the technology.
The academics:
Although the opinions of academic experts do not impact as strongly as in the case of senior representatives of the financial industry, they did raise some interesting questions about Bitcoin.
Aswath Damodaran:
On October 25, Mr. Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at the Stern School of the University of New York, published in a blog that does not believe that cryptocurrencies are a class of assets or a commodity. Your concrete words:
Bitcoin is not an asset but a currency and, as such, it is not possible to value it or intervene in it. You can only put a price on it and change it. "
Nouriel Roubini:
Nouriel is also a professor of economics at the Stern School of the University of New York, and in an interview - conducted on November 8 - with Business Insider Poland he referred to Bitcoin as "a giant speculative bubble." Bitcoin was worth, at that time, USD $ 8,000.
Bitcoin is also used by criminals for their shady operations. I believe that more and more countries will begin to host illegal cryptocurrency exchanges as China did. It will be then when new regulations are adopted and this finds its end. "
Joseph Stigliz:
The former World Bank Group representative said on November 29 that digital currencies should be controlled by the government, and that Bitcoin price increases are unsustainable. At that time Bitcoin was touching USD $ 10,000.
Bitcoin is successful only because of its lack of supervision, so it seems to me that it should be banned. It does not fulfill any social function that is useful. "
Robert Shiller:
The Nobel Prize-winning economist gave a similar opinion on December 19, noting that crypto-active investors are not making rational decisions and that there is no way to evaluate cryptocurrencies. The previous weekend Bitcoin had shot up to almost USD $ 20,000.
I think the value of Bitcoin is exceptionally ambiguous. You might think that educated people will transform the problem into something precise, but it does not seem that the brain is doing it. "