Bitcoin bears: As the cryptocurrency tanks, these experts are having the last laugh
Bitcoin turned 10 this year, but there’s not much to celebrate. Its valuation has tanked to new lows in 2018. It touched its 52-week low of $ 3,585 on November 25
Bitcoin has fallen 30 percent in a month, 50 percent in six months and almost 80 percent since December 2017. The continuous erosion in its price has made the world revisit the statements of skeptics who are being proven right. Here is a list of experts who had called the cryptocurrency's eventual doom:
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Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and billionaire investor | October 2017 | “People get excited from big price movements, and Wall Street accommodates… You can’t value Bitcoin because it’s not a value-producing asset.” It's a “real bubble.” (Reuters)
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Charles Munger, Vice Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. | February 2018 | “I never considered for one second having anything to do with it. I detested it the moment it was raised. It’s just disgusting. Bitcoin is noxious poison.” (Reuters)
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Jack Ma, Founder and Chairman, Alibaba Group | June 2018 | “Blockchain technology could change our world more than people imagine. Bitcoin, however, could be a bubble.” (Reuters)
Tidjane Thiam, CEO, Credit Suisse Group AG | November 2017 | “From what we can identify, the only reason today to buy or sell Bitcoin is to make money, which is the very definition of speculation and the very definition of a bubble.” (Reuters)
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Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, Saudi Arabia billionaire| October 2017 | “I just don’t believe in this Bitcoin thing. I think it’s just going to implode one day. I think this is Enron in the making... It just doesn’t make sense. This thing is not regulated, it’s not under control, it’s not under the supervision” of any central bank. (Reuters)
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Larry Fink, CEO, BlackRock Financial Management | October 2017 | “Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world.” (Reuters)
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Vitor Constancio, Vice president, European Central Bank | September 2017 | “Bitcoin is a sort of tulip. It’s indeed an instrument of speculation for those that want to bet on something that can go up and down 50 or 40 percent in a few days but certainly not a currency, and certainly we don’t see it as a threat to central banking or monetary policy, that’s for sure.” (Reuters)
Elvira Nabiullina, Governor, Bank of Russia | September 2017 | “China doesn’t recognise cryptocurrency as payment and forbids ICOs… Our views are absolutely similar. In our view, it's a sort of a financial pyramid that may collapse at any moment.” (Reuters)
