Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers Says Bitcoin (BTC) Is Here to Stay, Former Canadian PM Calls It Reserve Currency

Bitcoin (BTC) remains a hot topic of discussion among top delegates and institutions of the world. The former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has recently endorsed Bitcoin saying that it is here to stay. During an interview with the Bloomberg Wall Street Week, Summers said:

“I think some institution, like Bitcoin (BTC), is here to stay. I don’t think the whole thing is going to collapse…people are going to move towards it…the finiteness of its supply [is] going to raise prices.”

Fmr Treasury Sec Larry Summers:

"I think some institution, like [#bitcoin], is here to stay. I don't think the whole thing is going to collapse…people are going to move towards it…the finiteness of its supply [is] going to raise prices." pic.twitter.com/WVDMXFPoKz

— Neil Jacobs (@NeilJacobs) January 17, 2021

Summers also stated that Bitcoin (BTC) might consolidate at these levels for some more time, however, goes on to add that it is much more resilient to any sort of crackdown. Interestingly, the recent comment from Summers comes just at a time when the former Canadian Prime Minister – Stephen Harper – said that Bitcoin (BTC) might replace USD as the reserve currency. Harper’s comments came during his recent interview with Cambridge House’s Jay Martin.

“It’s hard to see what the alternative is to the U.S. dollar as the world’s major reserve currency. Other than gold, Bitcoin, a whole basket of things […] I think you’ll see the number of things that people use as reserves will expand, but the U.S. dollar will still be the bulk of it,” he said.

However, Bitcoin certainly isn’t appealing to some of the other world leaders and big institutions.

World Leaders and Institutions Criticizing Bitcoin

Last week, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde called Bitcoin a “Funny business”. She further went on to stress that Bitcoin is a speculative asset and plays with investors’ psychology. In fact, Lagarde also commented that Bitcoin facilitates payments for some of the illicit activities happening around the world.

“For those who had assumed that it might turn into a currency — terribly sorry, but this is an asset and it’s a highly speculative asset which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money-laundering activity,” Lagarde said in an online event organized by Reuters.

One of the world’s biggest wealth-management even went to the extent of saying the cryptocurrencies can go to zero. “There is little in our view to stop a cryptocurrency’s price from going to zero when a better-designed version is launched or if regulatory changes stifle sentiment. Netscape and Myspace are examples of network applications that enjoyed widespread popularity but eventually disappeared. Investors in cryptocurrencies must therefore limit the size of their investments to an amount they can afford to lose,” UBS Wealth said.