Computer scientist John McAfee has been one of the fiercest advocates of cryptocurrencies, and one of the strongest proponents of Bitcoin bullish trends. Right from making optimistic price prediction to arguing in favor of usability, McAfee has done it all, though the market has behaved quite the opposite.
After achieving the all-time high in December 2017, thanks to an unprecedented bull run, the markets have nose-dived, causing tremendous losses throughout 2018, which also led to the closure of several Bitcoin-related businesses. Despite the market going down, a bunch of crypto influencers like John McAfee and Max Keiser kept predicting a bull run, which is yet to happen. In fact, Keiser went on to make rather absurd remarks like Bitcoin could prevent the 9/11 Attacks.
However, McAfee made a statement last week, which seems to be in stark contrast to his stand. After all these years of promoting Bitcoin, he tweeted that the apex cryptocurrency is not the future of crypto. Here’s the tweet:
You asked if I hate Bitcoin now.
Of course not.
But Bitcoin is not the future of crypto. You have all always known that.
You just wanted to ride a wave.
Crypto is the key to unlocking our prisons.
You've been using that key to scratch your asses.
Wake up.
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) January 7, 2020
John McAfee has been quite vocal about his opinions, not only on Bitcoin but on the entire crypto-blockchain industry at large. Be it the utility facet or the credibility of altcoins, McAfee has always voiced his views strongly. Just about a few months ago, he stated that using fiat currencies is slavery, and batted for the use of Bitcoin as the ultimate store of value rather than anything else.
So, why is McAfee backing away now? Why did he say that Bitcoin isn’t the future of crypto? Let’s try to find out:
McAfee always supported and promoted utility tokens
Despite claiming humongous prices for Bitcoin, McAfee has been promoting several utility tokens over the years. For instance, he promoted BeatzCoin, a token targeted towards empowering artists. Likewise, he also promoted privacy and medical tokens like tokens Apollo, ZCash, Monero, Docademic, Solve, etc. This shows that McAfee, like premier investor Michael Novogratz, believes that though Bitcoin is the best store of value, altcoins are for utility.
Stagnant Bitcoin market for a long time
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No matter how much McAfee and other influencers keep predicting a bull run, the market continues to crumble down, with a rare exception between February–July 2019. From last year’s peak of $14,000, the prices have fallen below to $8,000, and sadly, have stagnated at this point. McAfee kept predicting a bull and the market kept tumbling. Finally, it seems that he has accepted that Bitcoin has reached a saturation level, and cannot go beyond. In early 2019, McAfee had predicted that Bitcoin would touch the million-dollar mark in 2020 and thus, however, saying BTC isn’t the future has seemingly ended discussion altogether.
Continuous rejection from governments
Bitcoin, or even the crypto market at large, has received severe flak from governments all over the world, which has diminished the prospects of success. McAfee uses to propose that Bitcoin should replace fiat currencies globally, a dream which seems to be moving farther by the day. In a video released on Twitter in September last year, he had said,
“What is the Holy Grail of Dictatorship? To know absolutely everything about the populous, the people, especially their financial dealings. What is cryptocurrency? It is an escape from that. Privacy coins and distributed exchanges give us the freedom to free ourselves from financial oppression and control from our governments. This is the truth. This is why I’m in hiding.”
However, governments, especially in emerging markets like China and India, have remained quite hostile and the future of Bitcoin as a globally accepted common currency doesn’t appear to be a possibility. Moreover, his feud with the government is very well known and he might not want to delve into anything that might hamper his situation any further.
In the Interest of McAfee DEX
One of the biggest reasons that McAfee might have contributed towards pulling his plug from Bitcoin can be the launch of McAfee DEX, his own decentralized crypto exchange. In fact, last December, McAfee was quoted saying that he has stopped promoting crypto.
Now that he owns a decentralized crypto exchange, it might not be in his favor to promote any particular cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.
Is it justified to predict a bull run and then back off?
Crypto market sentiments heavily rely on influencers, as most investors take their word as the final one. McAfee and others like Changpeng Zhao of Binance, Max Keiser of Heinsberg Capital, market analyst Michael Novogratz, etc. kept routing for a fantastic bull run, which never happened in the last two years.
As explained earlier, McAfee kept the prediction on even when the market was crashing after a short rally. And now that he says Bitcoin is not the future, one of the numerous questions that arise is whether his predictions were genuine and if they were, why is he backing off now. Isn’t this a favorable argument for those traditionalists who criticize crypto as bubbles that will burst very soon?
When multi-billionaire Warren Buffett criticized Bitcoin calling it as good as the button of his suit, the entire crypto market was quick to protest. However, who will keep a check on such predictions? Who will track contradictory predictions regarding Bitcoin? During the mini-rally of 2019, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao made a mockery of those who sold Bitcoin below $10,000 stating that they should slap themselves.
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Bitcoin’s volatile nature seems to be leaving its mark on crypto biggies as well. Their changing attitude and fluctuating predictions say it all.
Nonetheless, McAfee’s departure from being a Bitcoin promoter indicates that crypto markets are among the most volatile financial markets of the world. Like other financial products, mutual funds, bonds, etc., crypto investors, too, must study the market carefully, without relying too much on what the so-called “influencers” have to say.
