Startling news this afternoon comes from CNBC in a report titled: “Cryptocurrencies heading towards 90 percent correction, investment bank warns” You can see the full report for yourself, here- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/cryptocurrencies-heading-towards-90-percent-correction-investment-bank-warns.html GP Bullhound is a boutique investment bank that offers a range of financial services to clients in the internet, digital media and technology industries. Whilst they are UK based, back in March 2018 the firm carried out a large acquisition of a New York counterpart, opening up new business for them in the United States. Statements by GP Bullhound and Director Sebastian Markowsky suggest that the cryptocurrency markets are on a trajectory towards a correction period which will see all values decrease by up to 90%. In this instance the markets will be wiped out with very few companies able to recover from such dramatic losses. According to CNBC:
“Sebastian Markowsky, a director at GP Bullhound, and main author of the report, explained that institutional investors are likely to come into the market and drive the price higher. More retail investors will get in to the market too, buying cryptocurrencies at elevated prices. As the market begins to see sharp falls later this year, it will exacerbate the selling causing "panic" and the eventual correction. "Nonetheless, once this 'crypto-winter' passes, the growth dynamics for the precious few survivors will be unprecedented," Markowsky wrote in his report.”
This is a very bleak outlook that seems to be motivated by notions of continued cryptocurrency investment, initially driving prices up. Of course, when prices go up, correction does occur, overall however, I think this idea that a 90% market correction would cause the majority of currencies to fail is a little bit pessimistic to say the least. It feels like this assumes every investor is a panic buyer and indeed, a panic seller. Markowsky also weighs in on ICO’s and their limited success, suggesting that funds generated through ICO’s will be short lived and soon enough, the application of an ICO won’t benefit companies much longer. According to CNBC:
“GP Bullhound predicted that ICO funding will continue but mature. While many investors invest in ICOs without the company even showing a product, that could be about to change.”
According to Markowsky:
"Raising money on the back of a whitepaper will not be possible. I think people will need to see more product, the bar will be rising very fast.”
It is always interesting to see how external firms expect the cryptocurrency markets to play out. Since GP Bullhound have invested interests within the digital universe and the technology sector, it is strange to see what they have such a negative stance towards the cryptocurrency markets. We are not saying that these predictions are true by the way, this is just news and one organisations perspective, whether it is right, or it is wrong is totally up for debate. It will of course be interesting to see how GP Bullhound’s clients react to this, overall you would expect many of them to have cryptocurrency investments already, given the nature of the industry that GP Bullhound caters for. For now, don’t take this as a warning and don’t take this news to heart. GP Bullhound clearly aren’t confident about cryptocurrencies, I guess they just haven’t had the time to explore the renowned benefits just yet, perhaps that will change soon enough though.
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