Experts forecast pressure on Bitcoin from CBDC creation

The emergence of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) threatens to tighten controls over the cryptocurrency market. This forecast for the next five years was made by Kuna exchange co-founder Mikhail Chobanian during the ForkLog online conference ‘Centralized Exchanges and DEX: Pros, Cons, Differences.’

The expert sees a problem in the launch of the digital yuan and the potential digital dollar. In his view, the permission granted to US banks to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies signals the possible appearance of the latter.

“The introduction of CBDCs will affect all weaker economies. Cryptocurrencies could be subjected to heavy-handed pressure.”

The Kuna co-founder forecasts economic and political crises across developing countries, followed by cash inflation.

“Cryptocurrency will remain the last safe haven for storing financial assets. I do not believe in fiat. Given the speed with which it is printed, it’s all an inflated bubble.”

The co-founder and CTO of 1inch.exchange Anton Bukov, on the contrary, sees a positive signal in banking digitisation for broad crypto adoption:

“I hope that central banks will not launch separate blockchains for each digital currency and will utilise smart-contract mechanisms.”

In the coming years Bukov expects rising trading volumes on both centralized and decentralized exchanges and the scaling of existing blockchain platforms.

The cryptocurrency market may not receive regulatory oversight for five years, according to Nominex CEO Pavel Shkitin:

“We have waited for mass adoption for a long time. If everything remains as it is, the crypto business will continue to operate in a semi-legal fashion, and securing venture investments will be difficult. We would like to believe that a new generation more loyal to modern technologies and cryptocurrency will come to power.”

The expert argues that Bitcoin’s future is threatened by the advent of quantum computers.

Gleb Kostarev, head of Binance in Russia and the CIS, disagrees.

“Cryptocurrency will remain in five and in ten years; no quantum computers will destroy the industry. The adoption of digital assets will continue thanks to banks and large payment services entering this system,”

he said.

Alevtina Yakovenko, Solana’s head of business development and marketing, noted that the coronavirus pandemic gave an incredible boost to blockchain development:

“Top world developers were stuck at home for eight months. The community stopped spending time commuting to work. They all gained access to a huge amount of resources and the topic gained new momentum.”

The expert added that events in the DeFi sector showed that the crypto industry can turn on a dime—new trends and technologies emerged.

In Yakovenko’s view, in five years DeFi projects will go through their own mistakes and mature into a product.

Earlier, managing partner of Baseley & Partners Tatiana-Eliza Vasilyeva stated that under a strict regulatory scenario for the cryptocurrency market in the Russian Federation, decentralized exchanges could be banned.

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