If you were to ask a banker about Bitcoin five years ago, they would’ve laughed.
Even in the past two years, prominent members of the Wall Street community have lambasted the cryptocurrency, calling it a “scam” amongst many other things in that same vein; for instance, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of global bank JP Morgan, has claimed that he thinks Bitcoin is a “fraud” that governments are likely to “crush” in the coming years.
Though, times are changing.
Case in point, just this week Deutsche Bank, the 17th-largest bank by assets in the world, gave a nod to the cryptocurrency in its “Imagine 2030” report, which was written as a way to illustrate the institution’s thoughts on the future of society.
Why a Top Bank Thinks Bitcoin Will Perform Well in 2020s
Bitcoin has had a helluva past 10 years. In the past decade, the cryptocurrency has grown from the doldrums of irrelevancy to one of the most innovative asset classes out there.
Though according to Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid, who wrote a portion of the firm’s “Imagine 2030” report on 24 ideas for the next decade, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could see some strength heading into the next decade.
Reid, according to a Bloomberg article on the Deutsche Bank report, specifically looked to potential risk factors in the “current fiat system,” which he called “fragile” before adding that the “could unravel in the 2020s.”
Reid claimed that if this takes place, there will be a “backlash against fiat money and demand for alternative currencies, such as gold or crypto could soar.” The Deutsche Bank analyst specifically looked to the high levels inflations of the dollar in the 1970s, which led to a surge in the prices of gold.
Reid’s statement is reminiscent of that of the president of the institution, who said at a recent conference that he thinks that central banks are becoming ineffective. Per previous reports from Blockonomi, Karl von Rohr said that “recession bells are ringing” in major economies — something that said economies’ leaders would likely deny — before adding that central banks’ monetary policy is becoming ineffective:
“With fears of a downturn mounting, we have reached a level where monetary policy is at serious risk of running out of means to cushion a real economic crisis.”
Rohr did not mention Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in his speech, though the rhetoric conveyed about fiat is similar to that said by Reid.
Even one of the world’s most prominent investors, Ray Dalio of the world’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, has warned of impending trouble. He wrote in a recent LinkedIn post that he thinks the “world has gone mad and the system is broken.”
Deutsche Bank Warming Up to Bitcoin
This pro-Bitcoin sentiment conveyed in the report comes hot on the heels of news that according to sources familiar with the matter, Deutsche Bank is sponsoring Bitmain’s intent to go public on U.S. markets. Bitmain purportedly filed its latest IPO application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Previously, Bitmain was planning on raising billions of dollars through a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; now, the firm is a lot less ambitious, with a Bloomberg report revealing earlier this year that the firm’s next planned IPO would target a raise of $300 million to $500 million.
Not much more is known about the IPO, though Bitmain’s support of the sale is quite impressive, especially considering that a majority of global banks have expressed anti-Bitcoin sentiment over the years.
