Nigel Green says that many of the lawmakers’ views are outdated
The highs and lows of the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry have taken a downward turn recently as US lawmakers expressed great concerns over Facebook’s planned entry into the space.
But even as the future of the Libra cryptocurrency appeared shaky, investors were still loading up on digital currencies with Bitcoin valued at around the $10,000 mark in the last few days.
Nigel Green, founder and CEO of global financial advisory firm deVere Group, says that the views of the American lawmakers are outdated and blinkered.
“Some of their comments in the congressional hearings suggest that they think cryptocurrencies are a passing fad. That is delusional,” he said. “The demand for digital, global, borderless currencies is only going to increase. This is inevitable as the digitalisation of our economies and our daily lives grows further and picks up pace further still.”
Mr Green says that the cryptocurrency industry does not robust regulation and he says that top not do so is “bordering on negligent.”
He qualifies that with three key reasons: “First, it would provide further protection for the growing number of people using and investing in cryptocurrencies. Second, unless the US leads the way in the digital currency revolution, other countries - with perhaps counter values to those of America - will control it and it would be hard to ever take back that control. And third, there are enormous potential opportunities for higher economic growth by embracing cryptocurrencies. Why are lawmakers not seizing these with both hands?”
The Fed Chair recently expressed his concern over Facebook’s entry into the cryptocurrency industry.
Trump tweets may be helpful
Green says that Donald Trump’s recent tweets about Bitcoin reflected a “baffling approach” from the leader of the world’s largest economy to digital currencies, “the biggest innovation in payment systems in many decades.”
However, the founder of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges says that Trump’s comments may be helpful to the sector.
“Trump so far has not done anything positive or negative, he’s just said he’s not a fan,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told CNBC in an interview last week. “The fact that he tweeted about it, and the president of the United States is talking about cryptocurrency, it’s a good thing.”
I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
