Thought the cryptocurrency crash was behind us? It is not so. Tobias Adrian, Director of Money and Capital Markets for the IMF, says Bitcoin and other digital currencies will continue to fall in the coming months. Meanwhile, other experts hope to see a rebound by 2023.
For several months now, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as their investors at the same time, have been having a bad time. After a surge that lasted well into 2021, markets are now in freefall, evaporating the optimism (and wallets) of digital currency holders in the process. Many are now predicting that Bitcoin will soon reach the critical value of $10,000.
And they are not alone. The IMF, in the person of Tobias Adrian, director of monetary markets for the organization, wants to be equally considerate. “We could see further collapses, both in cryptoassets and in risky asset markets, such as equities”says the latter, who is particularly pessimistic about stablecoins.
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The IMF predicts a bleak future for cryptocurrencies
As a reminder, stablecoins experienced a heavy fall in May, dragging the rest of the cryptocurrency market in their wake. If these are not solely responsible for the current crash, their historic crash has cast a chill over investors, who are now struggling to recover. Despite everything, Tobias Adrian still refuses to compare the situation to the economic crisis of 2008.
“What was very worrying in the 2008 crisis is that the banks were very exposed to shadow finance [les organismes extérieurs au système bancaire, ndlr]and we do not see this exposure of banks […] through crypto at the moment », he explains. This does not mean, however, that no regulation by the IMF is necessary.
Tobias Adrian admits that the task will be particularly difficult for the IMF, given the growing number of cryptocurrencies. According to him, the key lies rather in the regulation of “points of entry”, such as the transactions themselves or the wallet providers. Experts, meanwhile, hope that Bitcoin could finally rally within 4 to 6 months.