Bitcoin Gets More High-Profile Criticism. Has the Crypto Bull Run Ended?
Text size
Bitcoin and Ether remain up by a staggering amount over the past year.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
If cryptocurrencies can be relied upon to do one thing, it is polarize investors.
A high-profile leader in the financial world added to the criticism against Bitcoin on Wednesday—he said he was skeptical of digital assets for payments—as cryptocurrency markets remain under pressure. But some watchers of the space insist the bull market is far from over.
The chair of Swiss bank UBS, Axel Weber, said Wednesday that while the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies showed promise he doesn’t buy into the idea that digital assets will replace cash.
“We really like the technology behind it—blockchain technology, distributed ledger—and we do a lot of that trade finance as banks with that,” Weber said. “The crypto part is where I’m skeptical.”
The banker described what makes up part of the bullish case for cryptos like Bitcoin—the concept of shifting global payments away from banks and cash to anonymous vehicles.
“That will not survive,” Weber said.
This isn’t the first time Weber, who also served as the president of the German central bank, has shown himself to be a Bitcoin bear. He espoused similar skepticism over payments at a conference in 2017, a time when Bitcoin was worth around $4,500.
Crypto assets have been under pressure of late, with a recent rally in the two leading digital assets,
Bitcoin
and
Ether,
appearing to pause.
While Bitcoin remains up almost 250% from a year ago, and Ether having surged almost 800%, both digital assets have failed to consolidate around all-time highs hit last week. That being said, crypto markets are also notoriously volatile, and 10% intraday swings aren’t out of the ordinary.
Bitcoin fell less than 1% Wednesday to around $60,600, having slipped below the psychologically important $60,000 barrier in earlier trading. Its all-time high is near $69,000. Ether, for its part, was down 1% Wednesday—paring losses from earlier trades—to around $4,250, after hitting a high of almost $4,900 last week.
“The market continues to edge lower as Bitcoin traded below the $60,000 support,” noted Freddie Evans, a trader at British digital asset broker GlobalBlock. “The selloff has not been limited to the world’s biggest digital asset, with the top 10 altcoins having fallen between 4-6%.”
Evans said the recent correction can be attributed to factors including the recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar and the signing of the infrastructure bill, which seeks to introduce greater regulation of crypto assets.
“However, there remain multiple technical indicators that suggest this is not the end of the current bull market and so this continued correction might not last long,” Evans added.
The trader highlighted increased interest in crypto as a means of transaction in the property market as evidence of wider adoption. New York developer Magnum Real Estate is selling three retail condominiums with a rented-out ground floor in Manhattan for $29 million, and will only accept Bitcoin, according to a report from Yahoo Finance.
“While this is not the first crypto exclusive deal which was in 2018, it is still starting the movement to crypto adoption in the property,” Evans said.
Crypto’s presence in real estate has also moved beyond transactions, to branding.
Los Angeles’ Staples Center will be rebranded as the Crypto.com Arena, with the rebranding of the iconic venue set to take effect Christmas Day. The naming rights deal is worth $700 million, according to a report from the Financial Times.
Write to editors@barrons.com
