Agustin Carstens, the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), declared victory in the war between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. According to Carstens, the events of 2022, which resulted in the disappearance of more than $2 trillion in value from the crypto market, demonstrate that the debate over whether crypto is a viable alternative to fiat currency has been settled.

This statement has not been taken well by some of the crypto leaders. One has even lashed out at this. Let’s explore. 

Mike Novogratz’s Retaliation 

Mike Novogratz, the CEO of GLXY CN has replied to Carstens in his recent tweet. He says that Carstens had disregarded information regarding Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

In his tweet, he mentioned that Carstens has held a stubborn view that just doesn’t hold up to the facts. In the past ten years tons of fiat currencies have depreciated by over 50% and $BTC and $ETH have appreciated a ton. There are 200mm people that trust $BTC. 

Travis Kling has agreed with Carstens 

Travis Kling, the founder of the cryptocurrency investing company Ikigai Asset Management, also chimed in on the discussion, claiming that bitcoin behaved more like an unsuccessful SaaS stock than a store of value. Stablecoins are not the application of cryptocurrencies that have gotten the most support, he continued, so it’s not really a win for cryptocurrencies because stablecoins are allowing access to fiat, particularly the dollar. Kling added that Ethereum might someday succeed in becoming money and that nothing else in the cryptocurrency space is now in competition with it, but it is still too early to predict.

The crypto market is under attack from fraud and unscrupulous actors, and authorities have the market by the balls, according to Kling. He said that there is just not enough political will in the US to properly fight back.

Carstens will still be delivering the same speech in five years, he continued, if the cryptocurrency market keeps taking repeated bullets to the foot.

To conclude

At present, it is very evident that the crypto industry is divided with respect to the future of crypto. Some continue to stand firm and support it while there are some who are drifting away and finding alternative investment options.