Cryptocurrencies are a hot topic among experts for months. It looks like every day some Wall Street star or a financial expert expresses his or her opinion regarding digital cryptocurrencies. Is bitcoin a scam or the future of money?
Is ICO (Initial Coin Offering) just a trick? It depends on whom you ask.
One thing is certain though, there is no lack of opinions about cryptocurrencies.
Lloyd Blankfein, the executive director of Goldman Sachs is still undecided when it comes to bitcoin, but he stated in a recent tweet that when paper money was introduced it generated numerous similar doubts on the market, just as cryptocurrencies are rising a lot of suspicion these days.
Blankfein said: “I am still thinking about Bitcoin. I do not have a conclusion yet: I do not support it nor reject it. Know that people were skeptical when paper money replaced gold.”
In the meantime, Golden Sachs allegedly plans on introducing a new trading platform which would focus on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum.
Jamie Dimon, the executive director of JPMorgan Chase & Co. claims that bitcoin is a scam and is highly unsatisfied with digital cryptocurrencies. He said that bitcoin was not a real thing, just a speculation which the US does not need. He drew a parallel between the quick rise of bitcoin and the tulip mania in the Netherlands in the 17 th century, claiming that it could end equally bad for the people investing in decentralized currencies.
“Bitcoin will explode in the end. It is a scam and it will not end good.” – said Dimon, adding he would fire every employee of his company for whom he found out was trading bitcoin.
James Gorman, the executive director of Morgan Stanley thinks cryptocurrencies are more than a monster and that their quick and sharp rise in value is more than strange.
„I did not investigate a lot, but I talked with people who did. This whole thing is obviously highly speculative, but no bad in its nature. It is a natural consequence of the blockchain technology.“
Gorman pointed out privacy of the users and decentralization as advantages of cryptocurencies.
Warren Buffett, the director of Berkshire Hathaway said in 2014: „Stay away from bitcoin. It is a threat and very efficient and anonymous way of transferring money. A check is also a way of transferring money. Do checks have a high value just because they can transfer money?“
Axel Weber, the director of UBS said: „I often wonder why I’m so skeptical about bitcoin and that probaly comes from me being a central banker. An important function of a currency is it is a method of payment, it has to be generally accepted, it needs to have a value and a currency of transaction. Bitcoin is just a currency of transaction.“
The executive director of BlackRock, Larry Fink said: „The quick rise of cryptocurrencies is proportional to the quantity and speed of money laundering actions around the wold. I believe in the potential of cryptocurrencies and their huge possibilities, but the current atmosphere around bitcoin is speculative.“
Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the biggest hedge fund in the world said that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin fulfill all the criteria of the market bubble, partly because they are not a realiable store of value due to their extreme volatility and the fact people buy them for the sole purpose of selling them later at a higher price. „Bitcoin is a highly speculative market. It is a bubble“.
