Ethereum

The co-founder of Ethereum assumes that cryptocurrencies will not see another exponential growth

The cryptocurrencies became a real fever for some investors in 2017. The exponential growth of the price of some crypto currencies seemed an unparalleled opportunity to make money fast and easy. But the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, says that the days of the bubble have come to an end.

"The blockchain space is getting to the point where there is a roof in sight," Buterin said in an interview with Bloomberg at the Ethereum Industry Summit in Hong Kong. "If you talk to the average educated person at this time, you probably have heard of blockchain at least once. There is no longer an opportunity for another 1,000-fold growth in anything in space."

The growth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies of the blockchain community during the first six or seven years depended on marketing and trying to get wider adoption, Buterin said. "That strategy is close to reaching a dead end," he said. The next step will be to get people who are already interested in cryptocurrencies to get more involved, Buterin said. "Moving from just interested people to real applications of real economic activity," he said.

Ether, the cryptocurrency that feeds Ethereum's blockchain, has fallen more than 85% since its peak in January after a new wave of digital asset sales over the weekend. The second largest cryptocurrency in the world lost $ 200. Ether is used as "gasoline" to pay for transactions in decentralized applications that operate in the Ethereum network.

The losses at Ether accelerated in August as some startups paid with the digital currency during their initial offers of currencies to cover expenses, and the concern of further declines in cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin has lost more than 50% this year while the market capitalization of digital assets that CoinMarketCap.com follows has been reduced to 197,000 million dollars, a decrease of about 640,000 million since its January peak.

Last week, Ether and Bitcoin fell after a report said Goldman Sachs Group would suspend plans for a cryptocurrency trading desk. Goldman CFO Martin Chavez said the report was a "false news" because, he said, the bank never had a timeline for the project.

Ether may continue to fall to a support at $ 155 as it faces increased competition, market volatility and industry maturation, according to the forecast by Bloomberg's commodity strategist Mike McGlone. That, however, would be an advance of 2,000% from the end of 2016.