{"id":36856,"date":"2021-02-22T20:43:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T18:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=36856"},"modified":"2025-08-29T08:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T05:28:58","slug":"barclays-compared-bitcoin-hype-to-sectarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/barclays-compared-bitcoin-hype-to-sectarianism\/","title":{"rendered":"Barclays compared Bitcoin hype to sectarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Enthusiasm around Bitcoin is becoming &#8220;increasingly cultish&#8221; and rests on &#8220;magical thinking,&#8221; said Will Hobbs, investment director at Barclays Wealth &#038; Investments, in an interview with <a href=\\\"https:\/\/markets.businessinsider.com\/currencies\/news\/bitcoin-price-outlook-btc-cultist-magical-thinking-barclays-cryptocurrency-2021-2-1030103875\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noopener\\\">Business Insider<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The first cryptocurrency could end up as a flightless bird if interest rates rise, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Hobbs emphasised that his firm is not interested in investing in Bitcoin despite the record rally. The main reason he cited is volatility:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;It is several times more volatile than our riskiest asset class, namely emerging-market equities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The investment director noted two main criteria that an asset must meet to enter Barclays Wealth &#038; Investments&#8217; toolkit:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>have positive expected return;<\/li>\n<li>be attractive for diversification.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Perhaps, over time Bitcoin will satisfy both. But at the moment it&#8217;s hard to say. We are standing on the sidelines and watching others,&#8221; Hobbs concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He expressed concern about the enthusiasm around Bitcoin:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;This looks like a religion \u2014 increasingly sectarian.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier, Barclays&#8217; chief strategist Gerald Moser said that <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/barclays-strategist-says-bitcoin-is-unfit-for-institutional-investors\">Bitcoin is unsuitable for institutional investors<\/a> due to volatility.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to Forklog&#8217;s channel on <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCC9FnXTC8_ENzaNSO5cHQ6g\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\\\"> YouTube<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enthusiasm around Bitcoin is becoming &#8220;increasingly cultish&#8221; and rests on &#8220;magical thinking,&#8221; said Will Hobbs, investment director at Barclays Wealth &#038; Investments, in an interview with Business Insider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1761,18,1138],"class_list":["post-36856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-barclays","tag-bitcoin","tag-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"12","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36858,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36856\/revisions\/36858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}