Bitcoin Is Incapable of Replacing Fiat Currency, Strategist for Global Investment Bank UBS Claims

Since the inception of Bitcoin, hardcore supporters of the cryptocurrency have said it will one day replace fiat money. As it stands, however, Bitcoin is still too young to be able to do so.

There’s also the fact that it’s plagued by a host of problems, including volatility, scalability, energy consumption, and more. Because of this, Swiss international investment bank UBS deemed Bitcoin incapable of replacing fiat currencies, CNBC reported.

"Bitcoin is still too unstable and limited to become a viable means of payment or a mainstream asset class," UBS strategist Joni Teves wrote in a note to clients Thursday. "Owing to its lack of price stability, Bitcoin falls short of criteria that need to be satisfied to be considered money."

Teves added that in order for Bitcoin to be considered a viable replacement, it still needs to increase its value by $213,000. But bullish investor Tim Draper believes that Bitcoin can even soar higher from that figure as he believes the cryptocurrency can reach a value of $250,000 by 2022.

However, Bitcoin is still struggling to recover since its December 2017 position where it was valued at around $19,000. Since then, the leading cryptocurrency has fallen and is currently changing hands at $7,416.

Price swings have been attributed to a lot of factors and one of them is speculated to be caused by market manipulation. While this hasn’t been confirmed yet, there is observable data that suggests this might be the case.

For instance, Bitmain – a crypto mining hardware manufacturer – controls over 50 percent of the Bitcoin network through the acquisition of AntPool and Bt.com, two of the largest crypto mining companies in the world. Moreover, the company also holds influence over the operations of ViaBTC, considered the third largest crypto mining firm.

All three of these companies give Bitmain a 47.2 percent control over the Bitcoin network. This fact worries a lot of investors since with a bit of effort, Bitmain can potentially manipulate the prices of Bitcoin if its control goes over 50 percent. However, the manufacturer has already said in the past that it is not interested in doing so, although others aren't convinced, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.