Shortly from the Cryptoworld 28/03 | Crisis, digital dollar and crypto
3 min read
Message from Brazil: cryptocurrencies are not currencies at all
The President of the Brazilian Banking Federation, Murilo Portugal, has argued that cryptocurrencies are not really currencies at all. Portugal was speaking in a debate about the ‘Impact of the Digital Revolution on the Financial System’ at the non-profit think tank, the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation. The debate examined the impact of new technologies on financial services, including blockchain, cryptocurrency, big data, artificial intelligence and fintech.
Portugal argued that “cryptocurrencies do not fulfill any of the classic functions of the currency” and said they are not a unit of account, or a means of exchange, or a store of value.
“They are actually called coins but they are not coins, which is why it is cryptocurrency. They do not fulfill any of the classic functions of the currency, which is to serve as an account unit, where people can express prices. They do not serve as a means of payment or as a store of value because the volatility is very high.”
Founder of Pantera Capital: Greater recession than after the war and “independent Bitcoin”
Pantera Capital Founder and CEO Dan Morehead has predicted Bitcoin will “come of age” during the 2020 financial crisis and may top its all time high price within 12 months. Morehead offered a grim prediction for the economy and said he believes the global economy is about to enter its first ever period of negative growth. “I now believe that the recession is likely to be larger than any post-War recession,” he said about the U.S. economy.
“I have spent 35 years trading global macro disruptions. This is like no other. This will certainly end the longest global expansion on record. It is likely to have a larger global economic impact than any downturn in recent memory.”
He likened Bitcoin to bonds, which tend to shine in times of market turmoil, and predicted BTC will recover in stages before reaching a new all-time high:
“The price of Bitcoin may set a new record in the next twelve months. It’s not going to happen overnight. My best guess is that it will take institutional investors 2-3 months to triage their current portfolio issues. Another 3-6 months to research new opportunities like distressed debt, special situations, crypto, etc. Then, as they begin making allocations, those markets will really begin to rise.”
Is the digital dollar good news? This is what the representatives of Ledger and Binance perceive
COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the global economy. As legislators in the United States go back and forth on how best to distribute aid, the conversation has amplified the potential role of a digital dollar to avoid the traps of traditional finance.
Pascal Gauthier, CEO of crypto hard-wallet maker Ledger, was positive about the prospect of a digital dollar for the company. Even so,he was uncertain as to whether recent legislation would actually bring it into existence.
“It’s amazing news. We’re not a fintech company. We’re just a tech company. We provide security solutions for critical digital assets and, you know, blockchain-enabled assets. So everything that runs on the blockchain is good for us because we protect the secrets, we protect the private everything that runs on a public blockchain.”
CEO of Binance Catherine Coley said that the prospect of a digital dollar was potentially good for adoption all around:
“If it is a push towards efforts of the Fed coming forward with their own version of a central bank coin, that would be something that would be fascinating and a good move in the direction of leading the U.S.”
