[2018-04-23] Cryptocurrency Market Will Get ‘Much Bigger’: Former JPMorgan Banke

[ivanpoldark]

Daniel Masters, who previously led JPMorgan’s global energy trading desk, says cryptocurrencies are fueling a financial revolution.

Masters is now chairman of digital investment bank Coinshares and chief investment officer at Global Advisors, and he explained in an interview with Bloomberg how distributed ledger technology is doing for the democratization of peer-to-peer transactions what the internet did for the democratization of news.

“That’s at the core of what makes this a revolution,” Masters told Blooomberg.

Leakage Problem

He was asked by Bloomberg about the potential for the problem of “leakage” in the fractional reserve monetary system, where only some of a bank’s deposits are backed by assets. Masters said no, cryptocurrencies aren’t creating leakage in that leverage, at least not yet.

Masters described a “regulatory sandbox” environment where digital assets resided for the past five years or so through the end of 2017. He said an ecosystem that’s $1 billion – $10 billion in size “is almost experimental in the scope of the main financial system.”

But with the market roaring near $1 trillion combined with all of the crypto-fueled headlines, cryptocurrencies “suddenly became something regulators, banks … central banks and governments decided could no longer be ignored,” said Masters. “I don’t think there’s any concern from that community at the moment that there’s leakage .. but I think they’re beginning to realize that there is potential for that in the future,” he added.

IMF Chief Christine Lagarde said in a blog post today that cryptocurrencies “pose no immediate danger” to the economy.

‘Crypto Market Will Be Much Bigger’

The way that Masters sees the world has never been a “fight to the death between crypto and the USD/GBP legacy financial system.” Instead, he says it’s about “what portion of the total financial ecosystem accrues to cryptocurrencies,” adding: “I think even if it’s only 5% at the end of the day, that market will then still be much bigger than it is today.”

Masters manages more than $800 million in cryptocurrency assets across both passive and active strategies for both leading coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash and Monero down to ICOs. As for staying away from the scam ICOs, Masters pointed to a “multi-stage screening process” by which fewer than 3% of small ICOs that come to them make it through their filter.

Masters recently touted bitcoin as “the play” of 2018 before the cryptocurrency market had begun to turn around. He said then that he liked ICO issuers with “non-forkable/blockchain specific ideas.” Masters has reportedly owned bitcoin since 2012 when it was trading at $100.

Read more: https://www.ccn.com/cryptocurrency-market-will-get-much-bigger-former-jpmorgan-banker/

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[Qartersa]

Well this is due to the digital age, and just slowly, people are seeing the potential of cryptocurrencies because it is at par with today's generation. It has always been like this- people being resistant to change. But little by little, I see people leaning towards that direction because it seems promising in the eyes of the youth. Just look at it this way, the youths are tomorrow's leaders. Now, since they are empowered to earn on their own through the internet, they sure will do something to enable this innovation to thrive. Hence, it is correct that the cryptocurrency market will get bigger with time.

[Kemarit]

Well its just the beginning. I mean crypto is still in its infancy and it has still a lot of leg room in the next coming years. Government and central banks really know how disruptive this technology is that's why they needed to stop it before it blows out. But honestly, I don't think that the effect is really that big to disrupt someone's financial status in a negative way. On the contrary we have seen its effects on countries like Venezuela and Zimbabwe where there is total economic breakdown and it seems that it has positive impact to the people and was able to survive the economic crisis. So I also disagree about this so called "economic leakage", and the fight against fiat USD/EU.

[monocolor]

He's just stating the evident things.