The head of a Chinese investment bank says he believes bitcoin's underlying technology is more important than the cryptocurrency itself.
Fan Bao, the CEO of China Renaissance, said in an interview with CNBC that while bitcoin's market may be a bullish one, he believes that underlying blockchain tech is more attractive and "probably the most disruptive technology...in the financial services industry."
"I'm a strong believer in blockchain in terms of its wider application in our industry," he added.
His comments came after bitcoin reached another all-time high over $6,100 last week, followed by a few days' fallback to around $5,500 as of press time. Yet at the same time, they come amid a range of finance-related applications for the tech, particularly around capital markets.
As reported by CoinDesk, Russia's National Securities Depository (NSD) has just issued the first-ever live bond at $10 million using smart contracts and the open-source Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. And Hong Kong Stock Exchange is also on its pace launching a private market for smaller firms interested in developing blockchain applications to explore more use cases.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bao also stressed in general that the Chinese government has taken a liberal approach towards innovations with its open market policy.
In fact, in a most recent announcement, the China State Government suggested that blockchain should be applied to establish a credibility system for the country's supply chain industry, signaling official support for development around the tech.
https://www.coindesk.com/china-renaissance-ceo-blockchain-important-bitcoin/
