With such a sizeable fall from grace in price, was there any question the FUD would begin? Jordan Belfort, whose biography was chronicled in “Wolf of Wall Street”, has always been a staunch advocate against Bitcoin's existence. And now, he goes on record as saying this latest tumbling in price spells the beginning of the end for the godfather of all crypto. Though it must be noted that he does in fact believe in “Blockchain” technology as well as a handful of other digital currencies. However, he is a pretty big name and people will listen, being the reformed character that he portrays himself to be (and most likely is too). So, here’s my take on this.
I, like many out there, see cryptocurrency as the next evolutionary step in money. After all, it’s one of the last bastions of our social landscape that has yet to be “digitized”. And I believe it will take years to reach anywhere near a level of worldwide transactional acceptance. So for now and some time to come, it will be treated as a parallel instrument of finance together with our established institutions of monetary governance. But given enough time, I do also see Bitcoin ultimately dying out too, due to much newer and more improved technologies concerning blockchain and crypto, taking its place upon the throne. Whether or not BTC will eventually be seen as a “store of value” in the future or looked back on as the very first historic experimental leap into digitizing conventional fiat, has yet to be decided. Though you can bet your bottom dollar, that process will take ages to play out.
Every crypto out there right now, including BTC, is really speaking just a speculative gamble. We part with our personal fiat in the hope that one day, prices will see that astronomical rise in value to catapult us all into glorious riches. For some who got in early enough, that already holds true. However, the “big institutional” investment hasn’t even begun yet. You know, that game changing money. Another factor to consider is that many high stake investors have substantial amounts of money to invest “on a whim”. You know, those whales out in the real world who actually have the resources to move the market on their own. They couldn’t care less about the tech or whether a crypto has any use-case whatsoever. All they care about in a return of investment and judging by the gain BTC has enjoyed in the past, it would seem a solid bet to add to their portfolio. And given its small market cap at present, this “money” would have huge ramifications in regards to price. Additionally, you know where most of that money will be going, right? Mainly Bitcoin and Eth, straight up.
Now, I know over time as “blockchain” knowledge spreads and becomes more public and standardised, savvy investors will diversify into different digital coins, based on what they can actually do in the real world. But before that time comes, BTC is king and will be for a long time to come. So much so that the correlation it has with every other coin out there (bar tether) will continue indefinitely moving forward from here.
So, is Mr. Belfort right? As of now, I don’t think so. The market is nowhere near saturation and the capital lining up to flow into this market is in the hundreds of billions. You can be sure of that. But ultimately, I feel he may be right about BTC’s demise. After all, it’s price is only as reliable as it’s tech. A super bug discovered in the code or a successful 51% attack, as Bitmain are threatening to do at this very moment, and it could mean the collapse of BTC and crypto in general. Even if it’s only temporary.
Let’s see, guys. The crypto “big bang” only took place in 2009. And we’ve been playing it by ear ever since.
