The speculations about whether Bitcoin is heading toward mainstream adoption does not seem to die down. After corporations such as Grayscale and MicroStrategy raked up more of the asset, recently, every analyst seems to have an opinion about the debate. Bitcoin even seems to be popular among Wall Street legends, such as Paul Tudor Jones, Stanley Druckenmiller and Bill Miller. According to the former senior chairman of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, Bitcoin is far from global adoption.
On the contrary, the investment banker was more in line with the views of Bitcoin critics such as Nouriel Roubini, Peter Schiff, and Ray Dalio. In a recent interview at CNBC Squawk Box, Lloyd Blankfein said that Bitcoin “could work,” however, the asset is not a viable currency.
Source: Twitter/CNBC Squawk Box
For every currency to be successful, it must possess certain properties such as storage of value and medium of exchange, which according to Blankfein, Bitcoin does not possess.
At the same time, the exec shared his views on how regulations could get in Bitcoin’s way. He thinks that in the event that Bitcoin gets regulated, perhaps investors could grow accustomed to new rules, but it would cost them their privacy, a key property that attracts investors to Bitcoin, in the first place. He further said:
Like a lot of things, this could be workable, but it will undermine the freedom of liberty, and kind of lack transparency that people like about it in the first place.
Recently, the digital asset dipped in price which many believe could have been a result of FUD. Especially after ECB President Chritstine Lagarde called for regulating Bitcoin because of its association to illegitimate activities. Soon after which, Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden’s choice for Treasury secretary, believed that Bitcoin facilitated illicit transactions.
Additionally, Blankfein believed that Bitcoin would only attract more regulators, as it grows in popularity and said:
If I were a regulator I would be kind of hyperventilating at the success of it at the moment, and I’d be arming myself to deal with it.
