Professor Nuriel Rubini at the 2019 World Knowledge Forum [매경DB]– “January 15th is coming. On this day, the bitcoin bubble bursts.”
‘Doctor Doom’ Nouriel Rubini, a professor at New York University in the United States, warned on his Twitter on the 7th (local time) as the 15th, which comes one day ahead, is drawing attention whether there is a real plunge in the virtual currency market.
Although Professor Rubini has continued to criticize bitcoin for many years, this is the first time that he foretold the collapse of bitcoin by referring to a specific date.
There was no comment on why Professor Rubini specified the period for the disappearance of the Bitcoin bubble to be on the 15th, but experts cautiously predict that it will be related to the case of the stablecoin issuer’Tether’.
Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency issued using existing currencies such as dollars as an underlying asset. Like the name Stable, it compensates for the shortcomings of Bitcoin, which is highly volatile in price. The stablecoin USDT generated by tether is worth 1 dollar. Therefore, it is used as a key currency in the virtual asset market.
Tether is under investigation for adjusting the price by issuing USDT without sufficient funds. Tether must deposit dollars in the amount of USDT issuance in a bank account.
However, a law firm in the United States filed a lawsuit claiming that Tether continued to issue coins despite insufficient dollars to exchange. In fact, a survey by the New York Prosecutors’ Office revealed that Tether only held 74% of the USDT issuance in cash. Tether is required to submit the evidence, which is on January 15th. Professor Rubini predicts that Tether will not be able to provide enough evidence. It is also the background of claiming that Bitcoin will plummet on the 15th.
Professor Rubini said on his Twitter on the 7th (local time) that “January 15th is coming. A bubble will burst”. [사진 출처 = 트위터 캡처]– On the 24th of last month, Professor Rubini appeared on Yahoo Finance Live and made a similar statement. At the time, Professor Rubini said, “The price of bitcoin was entirely manipulated by a group of people. There are studies showing that the tether, which stands for stablecoin, is also made by order.” He added, “Whenever the price of bitcoin falls, you can defend the price of bitcoin by issuing more tethers and buying bitcoins.” It supplied USDT of the company, which is a total price manipulation.”
If Tether is punished, the credibility of stablecoins could be cracked. In addition, there is a possibility of problems with USDT transactions, which have a large proportion in the virtual asset market. As a result, experts predict that it could lead to a decline in the price of all virtual currencies.
However, there are also views that the tether issue is not a big deal to change the bitcoin bearish market. In a recent report, Dae-hoon Han, a researcher at SK Securities, argued that “the issue of tether is a problem of Tether itself, not an event that will change the direction of the market.” He added, “The US Currency Supervisory Service (OCC) has already recognized the stablecoin as a formal payment method.” .
Prof. Rubini, nicknamed’Doctor Doom’ for his pessimistic economic outlook, made his name public by predicting the 2008 global financial crisis. In particular, he has revealed negative views on cryptocurrency since the early days of bitcoin launch, and he mentioned several times that even when the bitcoin price jumped more than four times last year, “the bubble will surely go out”.
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