Bitcoin dot-com? Doomsday predictions rife while crypto-craze intensifies

Bitcoin has enjoyed its most stable week in a long time, staying mostly in the $2,700 USD region as it’s very gradual uptrend continues.

The average cost of a coin is currently sitting at $3,648.42 CAD, as of 7pm, ET, according to data from CoinDesk.

However, the internet was today rife with more doomsday predictions from various outlets warning of burst bubbles and overspeculation.

Aberdeen Asset Management's top venture capitalist, Peter Denious told Bloomberg: “A lot of lessons will be learned and a lot of money will be lost, before a lot of money can be made. It's a gold-rush mentality.”

Additionally, AMD and NVidia – manufacturers of the graphics cards used by millions to mine bitcoins, are fearful of a crash and are currently struggling to meet the demands of crypto enthusiasts which is driving prices up and causing resentment amongst the companies’ loyal gaming customers.

Indeed, the current cryptocurrency craze is undeniably reminiscent of the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, during which countless internet-based companies sprung up as businesses and consumers began utilizing the new and exciting ‘world wide web’. 

Not wanting to miss out on what seemed like a golden opportunity, many investors were eager to invest, at any valuation, in any company that had an internet-related prefix such as a ‘.com’.

This resulted in a lot of companies being vastly overvalued and eventually led to the market’s collapse in 2000-2002; many companies such as Pets.com and Webvan (big names at the time) failed completely whilst others took heavy hits on stock prices.

In 2017, the feeling is similar; the buzz around cryptocurrencies is palpable and it seems like every day there’s a presale or an ICO (initial coin offering) kicking off for a new token which promises to revolutionise this or transform that.

Today is the turn of Impak, a tokenized bank dedicated to growing socially impactful businesses, according to Smith & Crown; their token sale began today on June 23 and promises 25% bonuses to early presale adopters.

It is likely that many of these projects will fail and perhaps it is true we are currently enjoying an unsustainable boom period; however, there is little doubt that blockchain technology will continue to be a force for innovation in the fintech world and beyond, and so, although some coins may flop and others will flounder, the underlying technology is sure to prevail.

So, for now let’s take comfort in that, along with the fact that, at time of press, there are 764 currencies, 132 assets and 4222 markets all contributing to a market cap of more than $150 billion CAD, of which bitcoin represents a whopping 40%. Impressive.