Bitcoin is about to break through the highly symbolic $10k threshold. That event will likely reignite discussion within the mainstream about the legitimacy or otherwise of the entire cryptocurrency and Blockchain token phenomenon that we are witnessing today.
Despite High-Profile Backing, Bitcoin Struggles for Mainstream “Respectability“
Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and online security guru John McAfee are just a handful of the long list of high profile public figures to have expressed enthusiasm for the Bitcoin phenomenon.
The last entry in this list famously tweeted an offer back in July, with the usual colourful language that he has come to be associated with, to chew off his own genitalia if Bitcoin does not manage to hit $500k within the next three years.
On the other hand, there is an equally long list of high profile figures who have advised caution – particularly from within the ranks of traditional finance.
JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon claimed back in September that Bitcoin was simply a fraud, adding to what was an unusually tumultuous month – even for Bitcoin – that resulted at one stage in a near 50% drop in value.
Bitcoin Set to Rise Further Despite Continued Scepticism
Despite historic associations within mainstream media to drug-dealing, gun-running, money-laundering and illicit pornography, Bitcoin’s popularity has continued to grow unabated – perhaps in part because of, and not in spite of, the negative press coverage.
Google monthly average searches for “Bitcoin”, seen in some quarters as the most reliable indicator of long-term price trends for the cryptocurrency, are continuing along the same exponential climb as that of BTC’s price in the last six months.
Current search term growth indicates that BTC is still climbing. The growth rate itself is expected to accelerate in light of the anticipated media coverage expected if or when BTC surpasses the $10K USD.
“Whether this current trend is something that constitutes a bubble is objectively difficult to call but it does appear that most new buyers Bitcoin are purely doing so for non-utility reasons. That is a cause for concern particularly within the ICO universe as Blockchain technologies attract interest in part due to the credibility of Bitcoin,” stated one Peter Lambert, spokesman for the Irish Blockchain Working Group .
Ken Griffin, founder of the Citadel multi-billion dollar, traditional hedge fund and a high profile Bitcoin-sceptic stated in a television interview this week that, whilst he didn’t share Dimon’s view that Bitcoin is a fraud, “I worry about how this bubble might end.”
