Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of the largest free-content reference website in the world, Wikipedia, has recently stated the cryptocurrency space is “absolutely, definitely in a bubble” which is eventually going to pop.
Wales, speaking at the Blockshow conference in Berlin, started his speech by noting he believes the space is in “serious need of real journalism.” He then added his views on the market, saying:
‘Right now, we are in a bubble. The crypto world is absolutely, definitely in a bubble. I don’t think there’s many people who would deny that.’
Notably, the Wikimedia Foundation has been accepting bitcoin donations since 2014. The organization started accepting the flagship cryptocurrency shortly after Wales revealed he had been “playing” with it.
During his speech, Wales echoed skepticism towards various blockchain projects that are set to “tokenize everything,” as part of his reasoning as to why the space is in a bubble. The online encyclopedia’s co-founder is a known skeptic when it comes to initial coin offerings (ICOs).
In an October interview with CNBC, he warned investors of the risks around the popular practice, and added:
“I think blockchain is a super interesting technology but there are a lot of fads going on right now. There are a lot of these initial coin offerings which are in my opinion are absolute scams and people should be very wary of things that are going on in that area.”
At Blockshow, Wales went on to describe some of the problems journalists face nowadays, and presented one of his new projects, a Wikipedia-style news source, as a potential solution to the problems the industry faces.
As for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, he noted that he wasn’t going to claim the bubble would pop tomorrow, as “things might get even more intense first.” Wales added, however, that “the thing about bubbles is that you never know when they’re going to end… it might pop tomorrow, but more importantly, it will pop.”
The entrepreneur’s words come as the flagship cryptocurrency sees its price drop to $7,350 at press time, from nearly $10,000 last month, according to CryptoCompare data. Last year, bitcoin surged from little under $1,000 to nearly $20,000, before its price came down to about $6,800 and subsequently recovered.
