Wall Street cryptocurrency analyst Thomas Lee predicted that from next year, financial institutions would start doing business in the cryptocurrency market.
Lee told the Block Media Friday that Shinhan Bank and Gopax Cryptocurrency Exchange have started service to help investors manage cryptocurrency assets. He was visiting Seoul to attend an international blockchain and cryptocurrency business last week. In the United States, Fidelity and other financial services firms began services to enter the cryptocurrency market, he added.
He said the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s decision to subject the initial coin offerings (ICOs) to the Securities Law, would weed out fraudsters who abuse ICOs for defrauding investors of money. He estimated that 25-40 percent of ICOs was scams that damaged investors financially.
Lee, who was the chief strategist for JP Morgan, predicted that South Korea would follow the U.S. SEC’s regulation on ICOs in the same way as initial public offerings (ICOs) of securities were regulated.
He said the global cryptocurrency market was in a downturn phase this year due to the regulations, and excessive ICOs. “Most shocking was the hard fork war of bitcoin cash (BCH), which drove down prices of cryptocurrencies. However, the recent downfall was an opportunity for investors, he added.
About 50 million cryptocurrencies are traded worldwide, aided by the young Millennial Generations, who are now in the 20s and 30s, he said.
