Bitcoin prices have tumbled in recent days, prompting some technical analysts to speculate that the largest digital currency must hold the $7,400 area or risk more declines. Count Goldman Sachs among those in bitcoin’s bearish camp.
“Goldman Sachs is not optimistic for the near-term fate of cryptocurrency. In its mid-year economic report, the bank’s investment management group highlighted “cryptocurrency mania” as one of six factors creating an unsteady undertow affecting markets for the remainder of 2018,” reports CNBC.
A poll conducted by Gallup-Wells Fargo revealed that 72% of U.S. investors have no interest in ever buying Bitcoin, while 2% currently own the cryptocurrency and 26% are on the fence.
The results were based on a second-quarter Wells Fargo-Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index survey conducted online from May 7 to May 14 via the Gallup Panel. The poll consisted of U.S. adults with $10,000 or more allocated to stocks, bonds or mutual funds within or outside a retirement savings account.
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Goldman Sachs “reiterated its January call published in the full-year outlook that bitcoin’s meteoric rise to $20,000 “dwarfed” mania seen during the dot-com bubble. The cryptocurrency has lost roughly 60 percent of its value since that high in December, and was trading near $7,470 Friday, according to industry site CoinDesk,” reports CNBC.
While more investing industry giants, including BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, are evaluating ways to profit from the cryptocurrency boom, that does not prevent Wall Street firms from waxing bearish on bitcoin. In fact, Goldman is not alone in its recent bearish commentary on the largest digital currency by market value.
“Goldman is the latest global investment bank to take the view that cryptocurrency is neither a medium of exchange, “nor a unit of measurement, nor a store of value.” On Thursday, UBS made a similar assessment and said bitcoin is too “unstable” to be a mainstream currency,” according to CNBC.
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