At press time, the father of cryptocurrency has managed to remain at $7,000 after hitting the newfound zone during yesterday’s afternoon hours. Bitcoin huddled at the $6,400 mark for several days and remaining largely unaffected by relative financial news, but later spiked to $6,700 and broke the $7,000 line about 48 hours ago.
Despite the price rises, not everyone is convinced that things are about to get better. Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street, is convinced the behavior behind bitcoin is fishy, and that things will fall apart in the end.
In his latest interview, Belfort explained that he thinks it’s “outrageous” that anyone thinks governments would ever accept an anonymous currency like bitcoin. He states:
“Central banks don’t want it. They’ve spent all this time trying to stop money laundering, so why now allow something that’s anonymous and lends itself to money laundering so easily? I don’t believe there’s any shot in the world they’ll let that happen… Bitcoin itself is not a scam, I don’t think. What’s happening is there are scams around it being perpetuated because by its very nature, it’s a dark market and you can’t see what’s going on behind the scenes. People dive into that and use it to rip off others. It’s not that bitcoin is a scam, but its nature allows scams to occur – and that’s what’s been going on.”
Problems… They DO Exist
To a point, one must accept Belfort’s words openly. Since 2014, the cryptocurrency scene has been marred with Mt. Gox-like events that have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto funds disappear in relatively short periods. There are still many issues involving bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as they’re considered birthing technologies, and it could be a while before those issues are resolved.
Belfort went on to say that there’s no legitimate reason behind bitcoin’s existence other than “pure speculation.” He says the whole point is to get more people involved so main players can make money on “early investors.” He explains:
“I would say 95 percent of people in bitcoin are legit, but it’s the five percent that kills you every time. The people that are scamming should go to jail. Those who aren’t scamming, well, I feel bad, because they are probably going to lose all their money, or most of it.”
How Do You Know So Much About Scams?
Belfort served 22 months of a four-year sentence for his role in a large pump-and-dump scheme back in the 1980s. He later wrote a book about his ordeals entitled “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which was turned into an Oscar-nominated flick starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Goodfellas front man Martin Scorsese.
Belfort is also certain that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) won’t get involved in bitcoin regulation. Allegedly, the organization is conducting several investigations into initial coin offerings (ICOs) and other cryptocurrency-related ventures that are believed to have been fraudulent. He states that many of these investigations, if one were to dig deep enough, would like reveal traces of both “massive fraud” and financial manipulation.
Will Bitcoin Ever Strike It Big Again?
In the meantime, bitcoin’s price is giving rise to further speculation. Despite the recent $7,000 barrier break, many analysts believe it will take time before the currency gets close to its $20,000 high point from last December.
Matthew Newton – analyst at global investment platform e-Toro – says:
“Clearly these are rosier numbers than we’ve become used to, but let’s not get carried away. Climbing higher than $7,200 remains challenging, as well as breaking the $7,900 barrier – the 200-day simple moving average. I wouldn’t write off a squeeze above $7,200. There still seems to be an imbalance between short vs. long interest right now on major exchanges.”
