{"id":223746,"date":"2018-02-07T07:41:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T05:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=223746"},"modified":"2018-02-07T07:41:36","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T05:41:36","slug":"get-ready-for-most-cryptocurrencies-to-hit-zero-goldman-sachs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/223746\/get-ready-for-most-cryptocurrencies-to-hit-zero-goldman-sachs\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ready for most cryptocurrencies to hit zero: Goldman Sachs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>The tumble in cryptocurrencies that erased nearly $500 billion of market value over the past month could get a lot worse, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc\u2019s global head of investment research.<\/p>\n<p>Most digital currencies are unlikely to survive in their current form, and investors should prepare for coins to lose all their value as they\u2019re replaced by a small set of future competitors, Goldman\u2019s Steve Strongin said in a report dated Feb. 5. While he didn\u2019t posit a timeframe for losses in existing coins, he said recent price swings indicated a bubble and that the tendency for different coins to move in lockstep wasn\u2019t rational.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe high correlation between the different cryptocurrencies worries me,\u201d Strongin said. \u201cBecause of the lack of intrinsic value, the currencies that don\u2019t survive will most likely trade to zero.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s digital coins lack long-term staying power because of slow transaction times, security challenges and high maintenance costs, according to Strongin. He said the introduction of regulated Bitcoin futures hasn\u2019t addressed those concerns and he dismissed the idea of a first-mover advantage &#8211; noting that few of Internet bubble\u2019s high fliers survived after the late 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre any of today\u2019s cryptocurrencies going to be an Amazon or a Google, or will they end up like many of the now-defunct search engines? Just because we are in a speculative bubble does not mean current prices can\u2019t increase for a handful of survivors,\u201d Strongin said. \u201cAt the same time, it probably does mean that most, if not all, will never see their recent peaks again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strongin was more upbeat about the blockchain technology that underlies digital currencies, saying it could help improve financial ledgers. But even there he sounded a note of caution, arguing that current technology doesn\u2019t yet offer the speed required for market transactions.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/222689\/reserve-bank-to-set-up-new-fintech-unit-likely-to-look-at-bitcoin-and-other-cryptocurrencies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reserve Bank to set up new fintech unit \u2013 likely to look at Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tumble in cryptocurrencies that erased nearly $500 billion of market value over the past month could get a lot worse, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc\u2019s global head of investment research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":186991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[657,1999,53,26],"class_list":["post-223746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-amazon","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-google","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223750,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223746\/revisions\/223750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}