While on Wall Street stocks can offer 9.2% annual return, bitcoin yields 150.6%, but to take advantage of it you have to prepare to handle market volatility, says David Osio, CEO of Davos Financial Group.
To have an idea of the investment potential in cryptocurrencies, it is enough to look at their growth as a market. In April of this year it represented $ 100,000 million. Today we are at $ 130,000 million. Of that amount, according to the firm Mauldin Economics, bitcoin represents $ 65,000 million. "The potential of cryptocurrencies goes far beyond an investment tool that, unlike the stock market, anyone can access. It is also a means of international payment in which immediate transactions can be made, "says Ansberto Rached, director of the cryptocurrency fund Lydians Capital.
And it is perhaps this versatility as a financial instrument that is converting cryptocurrencies into a large wave, which begins to generate expectations and certain questions.
According to David Osio, CEO of Davos Financial Group, many of the investors are still skeptical about this new investment alternative due to the drastic variations it has presented in recent months. However, "cryptocurrencies are a market that will eventually correct itself and will remain in the future," says Osio.
Like any supply and demand system, internal and external events have an effect on price, he adds. There are many events that have impacted the market of cryptocurrencies and especially bitcoin. An example of this has been the case of the bankruptcy of MT. Gox, the biggest bitcoin exchange house, that affected in some way the reputation of the sector, but despite this, the market has continued to grow, showing that the case was not related to bitcoin failures.
- Versatility -
For Rached, more than an investment, cryptocurrencies break a paradigm and become a flexible and fast means of payment to which everyone has access. They are a digital medium of exchange. If you pay for a good through Paypal, for example, the payment will be made through a banking network, while if the payment is made with cryptocurrencies there are no intermediaries.
So far there are about 800 coins, of which bitcoin - the pioneer - represents 50% of the market and Ethereum 25%.
"We estimate that by December of this year, the price of Bitcoin should be between 6,000 and 7,000 dollars, while Ethereum should be around 400-500 dollars," says Rached.
"Bitcoin has a limited number of currencies, so you can not create inflation by issuing additional currencies," explains the director of the cryptocurrency fund Lydians Capital.
Among the countries that have hosted it include Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United States and China. But Latin America is not far behind.
Cindy Zimmerman, executive director of TigoCTM, recently commented that she founded this company in Panama because, despite the existing demand, it was a place where there were no operators that converted cryptocurrencies into cash. Zimmerman explains that Venezuelans predominate in their clientele, who seek alternatives to the economic crisis in that country.
"TigoCTM has helped people who send money to their families so they can buy basic foods and medicines. Venezuelans use bitcoin ATMs because they are a faster and cheaper option than going through traditional banking methods or remittances, "says Zimmerman.