Bitcoins: Boom Or Bust? 10 Things Experts Said About The Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is probably planet's most discussed asset class and currency of 2017. The massive volatility of prices that entailed swing of 20% to 30% in either direction in a time period that is as short as 24 hours is a testimony to bitcoin's popularity and enigma. Though some countries have embraced it legally such as Japan and Belarus, some have already outlawed it such as Bangladesh, Ecuador, Nepal, while others, such as India, have yet to take a firm stand. So, while the uncertainty over bitcoin and its future continues to prevail, some economists, central bankers, finance ministers experts have either encouraged or warned the investors.

Ten Most Important Quotes By Experts On Bitcoins

1. Nobel laureate and famous economist Joseph Stiglitz once said that 'bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight. So, it seems to me it ought to be outlawed'

2. Governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda said, the price increase in bitcoin was "abnormal" and bitcoin is "being traded for investment or speculative purposes".

3. Reserve Bank of Australia's governor Philip Lowe said the fascination with virtual currencies such as bitcoins a "speculative mania".

4. Union finance minister of India Arun Jaitley said, "The government's position is clear, we don't recognize bitcoins as legal currency as of now."

5. Nobel-Prize winning economist Robert J Shiller called bitcoin "the best example" of a speculative bubble. He said this early this year when the bitcoin price was around $5,000. He also said, "The Bitcoin price is like a thermometer measuring the intensity of the epidemic."

6. Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs' senior fellow Stephen S. Roach called bitcoin a "dangerous speculative bubble by any shadow or stretch of the imagination" and a "toxic concept for investors." He also said, "I've never seen a chart of a security where the price really has a vertical pattern to it. And bitcoin is the most vertical of any pattern I've ever seen in my career."

7. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a "fraud". "I could care less what bitcoin trades for, how it trades, why it trades, who trades it. If you're stupid enough to buy it, you'll pay the price for it one day," said Dimon.

8. Stock market expert and Birinyi Associates founder Laszlo Birinyi called bitcoin a catalyst for a lot of interest. "It's also giving the guy on the trading desk, sitting at a hedge fund, a shot in the arm...All of a sudden more and more people are aware there's a market going on, the stock market and there's a way to make money."

9. Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker, said there's no regulation on the actual level of bitcoin itself. "There's futures regulation but the underlying asset is completely unregulated. It's a dark market." Belfort is the inspiration for the Martin Scorsese's movie 'The Wolf of Wall Street'.

10. European Central Bank (ECB) vice president Vitor Constancio compared bitcoins with tulip mania, the 17-century tulip craze that eventually went bust. Tulipmania is cited as one of the oldest examples of a financial bubble.