Turkey’s deputy prime minister has said that speculation surrounding bitcoin has turned it into the ‘biggest bubble in finance history.’
Speaking Wednesday, Mehmet Simsek, the deputy prime minister of Turkey, was talking with Bloomberg when he made this claim. His comments come at a time when bitcoin has been enjoying a continued surge in value. Since the beginning of 2017, it has risen in price by 17-fold as increasing interest pushes its price up.
However, according to Simsek, people should stay away from the digital currency’s speculation, adding:
Just as bitcoin’s price suddenly rises excessively, it could also crash.
Stephen Roach, a Yale University senior fellow and the former Asia chairman and chief economist at Morgan Stanley, is another bitcoin naysayer. Recently, he made the claim that the digital currency is a ‘dangerous speculative bubble,’ arguing that investors should stay away from it.
At present, however, the value of bitcoin doesn’t appear to be doing anything, but continuing its upward trajectory.
This recent price rise is due to the launch of Chicago-based exchange Cboe’s bitcoin futures contract on Monday. By enabling investors the opportunity to bet on the price of the cryptocurrency, the futures saw bitcoin’s value soar to over $17,000, according to CoinMarketCap.
Interestingly, while there are plenty of critics who regard bitcoin negatively, this hasn’t stopped investors from trading in it in order to reap a profit from it. Not only that, but with backing from the first U.S. regulated exchange more confidence is being placed on the cryptocurrency as it gets pushed further into the mainstream.
Yet, while Turkey’s deputy prime minister appears to be against it, the country’s central bank governor, Murat Cetinkaya, said at a conference in Istanbul last month that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin could contributed to financial economy ‘if designed well.’ This is despite the fact that many argue that digital currencies pose a risk to the workings of the banking system.
According to Cetinkaya, the central bank has set up a working group on digital currencies involving the likes of market participants, regulators, and policy makers. It remains to be seen, however, whether anything comes from this and if, as a result, the country adopts a more open approach to it.