First Mover: As Ethereum Enthusiasm Builds, 'Bear Case' Could Still See Prices Double

Oct 15, 2020 at 12:49 UTCUpdated Oct 15, 2020 at 13:17 UTC.Cryptocurrency markets are sending strong signals right now that the innovations coming from fast-emerging technologies like decentralized finance, or DeFi, could shake up the global order of banks and money managers and insurance companies.

A recurring theme at CoinDesk's invest: ethereum economy virtual conference Wednesday was just how much money there is to be made in the fast-growing digital-asset industry.

There are steep risks, as with the past few months' flameouts of DeFi projects like SushiSwap, whose founder suddenly decided to cash out tokens at the top of the market, crashing the market, and Yam, which succumbed to a bug.

"Today, 99.9% of the money is still in fiat," Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said in a one-on-one session with journalist Leigh Cuen during the CoinDesk conference.

Bloq, a blockchain infrastructure firm led by former CNN.com web developer Jeff Garzik, is rolling out a product that allows users to earn money by buying customized "Holding pools" of digital assets, CoinDesk's Jaspreet Kalra reported Wednesday.

In one of the panels at the conference, David Hoffman, founding father of the DeFi-focused publication Bankless, mapped out the bullish case for ether and said prices could climb to $10,000 or higher, from about $380 now.

In a subsequent session, Vishal Shah, founder and CEO of the crypto derivatives exchange Alpha5, mapped out the bearish case but concluded by saying prices could double under that scenario.

The bitcoin market has turned indecisive, according to Wednesday's doji candle.

"Going forward, the search for yield is likely to be a major driver of growth in bitcoins price and adoption," Stack Fund's CEO Matthew Dibb told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat.

Further, recent disclosures of bitcoin holdings by payments company Square and Stone Ridge Asset Management has validated the cryptocurrency's appeal as an alternative investment.