Although Bitcoin’s ten-month high might be largely fueled by speculation, it's still good news for Switzerland’s Blockchain-based companies, the president of an association representing the industry told finews.com.
The price of one Bitcoin has risen almost 80 percent since the beginning of the year, breaking above $30,000 for the first time since last June.
Besides speculation and the current turmoil among trad-fi (traditional finance) institutions fueling Bitcoin's rally, the group of people buying Bitcoin because they believe in the currency as an alternative to central bank money is growing, according to the president of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland Stefan Kuebler.
«While speculators plan to sell Bitcoin with a gain in Fiat money, adopters are buying it to use now or because they plan to use it in future as means of exchange,» he said.
End of Petrodollars?
Kuebler also sees agreements between China, Russia and Saudi Arabia as increasing pressure on the US-Dollar as the world's leading currency. In particular, Saudi Arabia’s recent rapprochement with China could indicate that the oil-producing state might be turning to dollar alternatives, such as the Chinese Petroyuan, further threatening to upend 40 years of the US currency's monopoly, Kuebler added.
A vanishing petrodollar would also add to dollar inflation, whereby Bitcoin could serve as a safe haven, and «considering that the Swiss government recently further distanced itself from its historic neutrality, Bitcoin could even replace the Swiss Franc in this role,» he said.
Information is Key
As Bitcoin’s price increase helps boost the visibility of the Swiss crypto industry, Kuebler hopes that it will also «motivate people to think about the possibilities of the Distributed Ledger technology as well as the potential of a digital currency that doesn’t belong to a state and can’t be manipulated.»
The Bitcoin Association Switzerland was set up in 2013 as a platform to inform the public about blockchain technology and about the potential of cryptocurrencies as an alternative payment system.
