Cryptocurrency Outlook

Leading an international bank based in Puerto Rico, Julio M. Herrera Velutini is a scion of a family that has been involved in the Venezuelan banking industry for over 120 years. Julio Herrera Velutini remains attuned to the latest developments in the financial sector, including the performance and outlook of cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies, digital assets used as a medium of exchange and largely represented by their biggest player, Bitcoin, saw a surge in value in 2017. Bitcoin’s unit value began the year below $1,000 and shot up to almost $20,000, netting huge returns for early investors. It then dropped to the $13,000 level at the beginning 2018, before falling further to below $8,000 in late March. Some view the cryptocurrency space as akin to the Wild West.

Others see more normalcy coming into play, with governments taking steps to regulate the currencies or even ban them outright. Bitcoin futures now trade at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and cryptocurrency startups have attracted large sums of money, with even Goldman Sachs making an investment. Cryptocurrency has experienced a huge fall of late but it’s far from finished, and since it’s still treated as a speculative asset, its entry and use in the formal banking sector as a medium of exchange like traditional currencies is not on the immediate horizon.