WATCH: Is crypto a speculative instrument or a means for commerce?

There is a new wave of excitement about cryptocurrencies after bitcoin’s recent rally pushed the global market cap of cryptos past the $2-trillion mark. But S&P Global Ratings believes they continue to be speculative instruments instead of a means for commerce. And this week Wednesday, Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, is scheduled to go public via an initial private offering (IPO).

Coinbase thrived in 2020 as investors poured into bitcoin. Yet, we still see exchanges failing like iCE3, which recently announced that it had been “advised to initiate liquidation proceedings” after suspending all trading on the exchange in March following the discovery of account discrepancies.

So where does this leave the long-run investment and use case for cryptos?

Michael Avery spoke to Badi Sudhakaran who is the co-founder and chief product officer of VALR.com; Anthony Rocchi, co-founder of RexSolom Invest, a boutique asset manager; and Wiehann Olivier, partner at the audit division of Mazars.

Source: businesslive.co.za