Nuveen Asset Management’s Strategist: Who Needs Stock Markets When You Have Bitcoin
CryptoBit News Today2 min read
As Bitcoin's price surge continues its heady pace, concerns about the cryptocurrency's still-speculative nature have come into sharper focus.
Feels Speculative: Nuveen's Doll
Doll remarked that the price of bitcoin "feels speculative."
He is not the first figure from Nuveen, a firm established in 1898 that oversees around $948 billion in assets, to comment on cryptocurrency markets.
$10,000 In Sight
All the while, Bitcoin flirted with reaching the next major milestone, as its price lurched at the $10,000 mark.
In early October, one single unit of the cryptocurrency could be had for under $5,000, exchange data points out.
On Monday, just a few days after Thanksgiving, coins changed hands at a price of $9,770, the freewheeling price surge coming in the midst of positive news, including CME Group Inc.'s expected launch of bitcoin futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Japan formally recognized bitcoin as an official payment method earlier in the year.
Key Drivers Push Further Upside
Chris Weston of IG Group summarized the broader market dynamics on Monday, connecting the dots in a changing trading landscape that helped bolster the prices of crypto's leading coins:
"Factors like the anticipation of the CME listing cryptocurrency futures in the second week of December and investor FOMO (fear of missing out), are driving another frenzy of buying."
Between November 22 and November 24, more than 100,000 people established new accounts on Coinbase. Coinbase's user base grew to approximately 13.1 million accounts, surpassing the number of accounts at Charles Schwab.
Diverging Market Forecasts
Josh Brown of Ritholtz Wealth Management characterized bitcoin as "officially an investor mania."
Analysts are predicting prices could hit $40,000 by the end of 2018, while others calibrate potentially even loftier predictions of $100,000 in a decade's time.
Yet others aren't buying the hype. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, directly referred to Bitcoin as a "fraud," and Allianz GI reckons the cryptocurrency is purely speculative by nature.
Over the past few years, the digital currency has experienced five distinct crashes in which it shed 80 percent of its value.
