Those who have billed bitcoin as a store of value, or “digital gold,” may have been especially disappointed by its performance this week. As bitcoin tumbled, the U.S. stock market also dropped as much as 1,300 points in two days, its biggest sell-off since February.
Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds BitBull Capital, said the uncertainty around stocks bled into cryptocurrency markets.
“When we saw equity markets crumble, there was some fear in the cryptocurrency market as well,” he said. “I think there was an initial jolt due to larger market activity and the sell off.”
Bitcoin has been hovering between $6,000 and $8,000 since the beginning of summer. DiPasquale said more positive crypto-related news, like an investment from Yale’s endowment, or an ETF winning approval could be the bump cryptocurrencies need need to break out of that range.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Community Affairs held a hearing on regulation this week, and multiple senators brought up concerns about the possibility for nefarious use cases like money laundering. But the most vocal crypto skeptic was economist Nouriel Roubini, who is nicknamed “Dr. Doom” for predicting the 2008 financial crisis.
Roubini called cryptocurrencies the “mother of all scams,” and called its 50 percent losses this year “crypto-apocalypse.” The total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies is down by more than 60 percent, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Washington-based lobbying group Coin Center, took a starkly different stance. While he acknowledged that it’s not widely accepted as a payment method, Van Valkenburgh said that aspects of it are still promising.
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