Top crypto analyst, trader and host of The Wolf Of All Streets podcast Scott Melker is naming a threat that he believes looms large over Bitcoin’s future.
In an interview with Kitco News, Melker discusses the regulatory threats that Bitcoin (BTC) could face in the near future as the king coin potentially becomes too large to escape governmental reach.
Melker says that Bitcoin will inevitably become the subject of further regulation and scrutiny in terms of the type regulation the asset will face.
“I think that regulation is necessary and whether you think it’s necessary or not we all know that it’s inevitable – so I would say that the threat is the kind of regulation. Heavy-handed regulation by regulators who don’t understand the asset could be very bad for Bitcoin in the short term.”
The analyst likens the situation to the Chinese mining phenomenon, in which many BTC mining rigs are moving out of the country.
“People viewed the Chinese mining breakdown maybe as bearish, but that’s only a bearish thing in the very short term. If you believe in the decentralization of the network and you were worried about China’s impact, well this should be viewed as very bullish long term… It just depends on through what lens and what timeframe you view any of these things.”
Melker says that even if Bitcoin faces harsh governmental regulation across the globe, the network will not fail.
“I would say that extremely heavy-handed legislation from multiple countries could make it very, very difficult. But to be clear, Bitcoin cannot be stopped. It cannot be banned.”
Melker also touches upon the top smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH) and its chances of flipping Bitcoin’s market cap.
Although the analyst does not believe that Ethereum will flip Bitcoin in valuation, he says that the ETH network is receiving heavy institutional interest and actual usage.
“Ethereum had higher trading volume than Bitcoin in the second quarter… I’m bullish on both assets… I do not think that Ethereum will flip Bitcoin any time soon in market cap, but institutional interest is growing tremendously … trading volumes, the actual usage of the network is huge. So I think that there’s good reason to be very, very bullish on both of those assets.”
At time of writing, Ethereum stands at a $384.6 billion market cap and Bitcoin at a nearly trillion-dollar market cap, according to CoinGecko.
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