The chair of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has given a positive view of the crypto market, arguing that it is here to stay.
Yes, They Will Survive
Jeff Sprecher, who is also CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), made his comments during the Consensus: Invest conference in New York earlier this week.
ICE, which owns exchanges such as the NYSE, is launching its Bakkt Bitcoin futures trading product on January 24th, 2019. It had originally been scheduled to launch mid-December. However, in a report from this month, the delay is to ensure proper “customer and clearing member onboarding prior to the start of trading and warehousing of the new contract.”
Yet, despite the recent slump in crypto prices and the delay to the Bakkt product, Sprecher remains confident of the market’s future, reports CNBC.
In answer to a question as to whether crypto assets will survive, he said:
The unequivocal answer is yes. As an exchange operator it’s not our objective to opine on prices.
In the last two weeks, the value of the cryptocurrency market has seen a downturn in value. Shortly after the Bitcoin Cash hard fork, prices began to tumble. However, whether the fork had any impact is not known.
Last weekend, Bitcoin fell to its yearly low of $3,593, a figure not seen since September 2017, with the combined market cap reported as being down to $129.1 billion.
At the time of publishing, the market has rallied, with the market cap now at $139.5 billion. The price of Bitcoin has risen by 5.61 percent in the last 24 hours and is currently listed at $4,336, according to CoinMarketCap. However, it’s still down by nearly 4 percent over a seven day period.
The Dow is a ‘Terrible Index’
XRP, which remains in second place, is priced at $0.37, whereas, Ether – now in third place – is trading at $120, after briefly flirting with the $100 mark earlier this week.
Bitcoin Cash, which is holding on to fourth place, has been one of the worst hit altcoins. It remains under the $200 mark at $185 and is still down nearly 17 percent over the past week. Stellar, overtaking EOS into fifth place, is close behind BCH and may replace it in fourth place again at some point.
At present, the market is recovering from what has been a tense couple of weeks. Yet, despite this, it continues to survive. As Sprecher said:
Somehow Bitcoin has lived in a swamp and survived. There are thousands of other tokens that you could argue are better but yet Bitcoin continues to survive, thrive and attract attention.
In his opinion, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a “terrible index,” and while critics say it’s not an accurate representation of market performance, it remains as to the go-to index. Sprecher added:
Often times in finance, it’s not about being the best — it turns out to be about being the broadest and the most commonly accepted and for whatever reason Bitcoin has become that.
What do you think? Do you believe crypto assets will remain and become a permanent feature in the market? Let us know in the comments below.
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