Allianz analyst: cryptocurrencies will spread, but will not surpass Fiat

Senior economic adviser to insurance giant Allianz, Mohamed El-Erian, said he believes in the spread of cryptocurrencies, but only as part of a broader blockchain ecosystem. El-Erian told on the Consensus Invest event in New York that he sees Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as commodities rather than currencies.

"There were two confusions made," El-Erian said. "People called it a currency or an asset class. What it is, is part of the commodity complex."

 "I think cryptocurrencies will exist and will become more and more widespread, but they will be part of an ecosystem. They will not be dominant as a lot of the early adopters believe they will be," said Allianz's advisor.

El-Erian said that, in his opinion, the global economic crisis of the late 2000s led to the emergence of Bitcoin, which resulted in a "lack of trust" between participants in the financial ecosystem.

"Yes, we have a big trust deficit. I don't think we'd be up here on stage today if there had there not been a shock to the trust in the way the economy works," said El-Erian. The economic adviser also noted the significantly increased interest of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency industry.

"When people saw it was going straight up and saw who was getting sucked into this phenomenon, they started warning. And I do think those were appropriate warnings," El-Erian summed up his speech.

It should be noted that in September, El-Erian expressed the opinion that cryptocurrency "will remain for a long time."

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