Crypto Could Become New Asset Class in 10 Years

According to Arthur Hayes, Bitcoin (BTC) could become a new asset class in the next ten years. Hayes is the co-founder as well as Chief Executive officer of BitMEX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volumes.

Hayes made this statement while speaking to the host of the Unchained podcast, Laura Shin as well as other industry leaders at the Global Financial Leadership Conference organized by CME last month.

A New Asset Class

Hayes was asked whether Bitcoin represented a new asset class, and he showed his skepticism about it. He stated that at this point in time, it was still extremely small, and that cryptocurrencies were a “sort of a blend”.

He stated that Bitcoin could possibly become a new asset class in the next 10 years, however, right now, the jury was still out on whether or not the crypto was actually secure in the long run. He said that it could still be considered an experiment.

Having said that, Hayes also showed a lot of optimism about cryptocurrencies becoming a new way of raising capital as well as sending value across the globe.

The Future of Trading

The BitMEX Chief Executive also spoke about the future of trading in the financial world. He stated that the 22/7 trading pattern that was followed by cryptocurrency markets would replace current traditional trading hours for regular assets too.

In his interview, Hayes said that this type of trading pattern was the future and would become the norm in all other trading markets such as equities, Fixed Income and FX.

Predictions about Bitcoin

In November, Hayes had also made predictions about the movement of cryptocurrency prices. He said that the price of Bitcoin would go down to between $2000 and $3000. He cited Bitcoin’s lowered volatility in recent months as the reason for his bearish sentiment.

Hayes also predicted that the crypto winter being experienced by the markets would stretch for as much as 18 months, saying that previous experiences of a nuclear bear market in 2014 and 2015 made him believe that it was going to happen again.

However, at this point, it seems his prediction of a continued bear market seems a little off the mark, with Bitcoin dropping to its lowest for the year to $3,200. In the last couple of days, the crypto has shown a significant rebound is now up by more than 10% to trade at over $3,700.