CEO of the cryptocurrency payment service BitPay Stephen Pair told in an interview with CNBC that the current value of Bitcoin is more related to the speculative component, and only a small part of it is of practical value. However, with his company he plans to change the situation.

"A great influence on the price is exerted by speculation, and the real practical significance of Bitcoin is only a small component of its price. BitPay focuses precisely on this issue - using the platform and providing products that will be valuable to our customers," said Pair.

In a conversation with Bloomberg, a cryptocurrency investor and CEO of Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz, compared Bitcoin with a drug, and the current market situation with a "methadone clinic".

BTCC co-founder Bobby Lee predicts that the price of Bitcoin could fall to $ 2,500 in January 2019. Many traders consider this figure too optimistic.

Against the background of an ongoing survey in social networks, in which almost 5,000 people took part, Lee, who is becoming more and more famous for his bullish price forecasts, said that "a large number of purchase and support orders" will help Bitcoin to keep up $ 2000.

At the 2018 Global Tech Forum held in China, the famous billionaire investor Jim Breyer made a negative statement for cryptocurrency investors.

Despite the long decline in cryptocurrency quotes, he still has high hopes for the blockchain business, but he expects the near future will be the worst time for investors.

"We are close to a nuclear winter right now with cryptocurrency," said Breyer, who is famous for investing in popular cryptocurrency projects: Circle, Ethereum, VeChain and High Fidelity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is investigating the possibility of tracking cryptocurrency-oriented transactions.

A preliminary tender document published by representatives of the DHS Small Business Innovation Research Program discusses the possibility of using cryptocurrency transactions. Although the document emphasizes the possibility of using cryptocurrencies at both commercial and state levels, special attention is paid to analyzing anonymous cryptocurrencies that are used by criminals.

Huo Xuewen, head of the Beijing Municipal Finance Bureau, warned the company about the illegal sale of security tokens (STOs).

At a recent fund management forum organized by the bureau on Saturday, Huo said that fundraising activities through the STO are "illegal", at least in Beijing.

Known cryptocurrency investor and founder of Heisenberg Capital Ltd. Max Keiser said that in the future, the price of Bitcoin will only grow, and, reaching $ 100,000 will absorb the usual fiat money.

He also expressed the opinion of the "genius" of the Bitcoin protocol, stating that "more you understand" how it works, "more clarity you achieve."

"How that [manipulation] issue gets addressed, I don't have a particular path. But it needs to be addressed" before an ETF gets approved, said Jay Clayton, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"The prices retail investors are seeing are the prices they should rely on, and free from manipulation – not free from volatility, but free from manipulation"

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."

Messari, the cryptocurrency version of the EDGAR database maintained by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), launches an information register for tokens issuing projects in order to collect information that would otherwise be difficult to find.

The registry, announced on Tuesday at a Consensus: Invest event, will collect information in one place that rarely becomes public knowledge, including the structure of tokens, data on coin issues, official communication channels, management of funds raised, and information about project team members.