Bitcoin ‘Trying to find Stability’: Allianz's El-Erian Softens Stance on Crypto

Allianz’s Mohamed El-Erian has toned down his statements on Bitcoin’s future after saying its value should halve.

Allianz’s chief economic adviser Mohamed El-Erian has joined Bitcoin skeptics appearing to soften their stance on the cryptocurrency.

In a manner similar to JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, El-Erian, who previously stated Bitcoin should be worth 50 percent of its value, told CNBC it was “trying to find stability.”

“...It's more of a commodity than it's a currency," he said, comparing Bitcoin to a commodity rather than a currency.

As Bitcoin reaches new all-time highs of $7,500, bubble concerns many expected are taking a back seat in light of a key decision by Wall Street giant CME Group to offer Bitcoin futures trading by the end of 2017.

When El-Erian made his previous comments in September, Bitcoin was trading around $4,000.

He had forecast prices would “explode,” but that adoption by the masses is “not going to happen.”

With Coinbase adding 100,000 users daily in November, El-Erian nonetheless voiced concerns about longer-term adoption prospects.

“My major concern over the long term is: is the assumption in the pricing about adoption consistent with reality? That's the issue that investors should ask if they're holding Bitcoins for a couple of months," he added to CNBC.

For his part, Dimon had declared he would no longer mention Bitcoin at all after his infamous “fraud” accusations went viral and caused a price dip. Other JPMorgan senior executives have gone on record saying the banking giant is “open-minded” on the issue of cryptocurrency in general.