As bitcoin suffers one of its worst corrections in its nearly decade-long history, one of crypto’s fiercest critics is calling it: the crypto bubble has burst, and prices are never coming back.
Taking a preemptive victory lap on Twitter, economist Nouriel Roubini gleefully reported that the crypto market’s recent struggles had “vindicated” his multitudinous criticisms of the still-nascent asset class.
“With BTC down almost 80% from peak (from 20K to ~4K) & all other cryptocurrencies down 80% to 99% I rest my case that this crypto bubble went bust for good. I feel vindicated,” said Roubini, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “So I will take a break for a few days from this toxic Crypto Twitter. Waste of time to convince zealots[.]”
With BTC down almost 80% from peak (from 20K to ~4K) & all other cryptocurrencies down 80% to 99% I rest my case that this crypto bubble went bust for good. I feel vindicated. So I will take a break for a few days from this toxic Crypto Twitter. Waste of time to convince zealots
— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) November 20, 2018
Roubini, nicknamed “Dr. Doom” for his oft-bearish market predictions, further opined that the fair market bitcoin price was “sub-zero” aside from marginal collector’s value as a museum curiosity.
“[The] fair value of BTC is sub-zero once u impose the right environmental externality tax. And I am sure some crypto zealots would buy it at negative with such tax as BTC will have a numismatic value in museums of dead pseudo-currency.”
Of course, Roubini has been bashing bitcoin since it was below $10, and — year-long bear market or not — BTC has a long way to go before it reaches that mark. Even ardent crypto skeptic Vanguard founder Jack Bogle said he’d discuss investing in bitcoin if it fell back to $100, so it’s unlikely that any investor who purchased bitcoin when Roubini first said it was a bad buy will ever see a negative return on that investment.
Nevertheless, that’s unlikely to stop Roubini from declaring victory, as crypto skeptics have done more than 315 times in the past, according to the unofficial “Bitcoin Obituaries” index. Each of those predictions has thus far been proven wrong. Time and market forces will tell if Roubini’s forecast becomes just another data point on that list.
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