Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, recently responded to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s claim that “1000x price increases” for bitcoin (BTC) and other digital currencies was no longer possible. Zhao predicted that “crypto will absolutely grow 1000x and more.”
I still disagree with this. I will say “crypto will absolutely grow 1000x and more!” Just reaching USD market cap will give it close to 1000x, (that's just one currency with severely restricted use case), and the derivatives market is so much bigger. https://t.co/bvSttEeCmc
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) September 12, 2018
“1000x” Crypto Growth, Adoption
As covered on CryptoGlobe, Buterin had said “the blockchain space is getting to the point where there’s a ceiling in sight…there isn’t an opportunity in for yet another 1,000 times growth in anything in this space anymore.”
However, the Ethereum co-founder clarified (a few days later) that he meant there would no longer be dramatic, or exponential, cryptocurrency price increases. There is still room for growth and adoption of digital assets and blockchain technology, Buterin said.
To support his assertion, the Russian-Canadian programmer and writer pointed out that:
A 1000x price increase [for cryptocurrencies] from today means $200T [trillion] in crypto, or ~an entire 70% of today's global wealth being in crypto.
Responding to Buterin, Binance CEO Zhao tweeted that this is “definitely” possible for crypto. He also argued that the USD is “just one [fiat] currency with [a] severely restricted use case.” Zhao further noted that there is a lot of potential for significant increases in digital currency prices as they could also tap into the “derivatives market”, which is “so much bigger.”
“Burn In Hell”
Notably, this is not the first time that Zhao, a Chinese-Canadian businessman and founder of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has argued with Buterin. In July, the Ethereum developer had criticized centralized digital currency trading platforms – remarking:
I definitely hope centralized exchanges go burn in hell as much as possible.
In response, Zhao said:
Let’s not wish others to ‘burn in hell’. Let’s have a bigger heart, and appreciate the fact that we are part of an ecosystem.
He continued by noting that a completely decentralized crypto industry was not possible and the centralization of some services was actually beneficial to the space.
Ether (ETH) Drops To 16-Month Low
Zhao added that “there is no absolute decentralization” and centralized exchanges help increase the liquidity of digital assets, and without this, the crypto ecosystem would have been a lot smaller than it is today.
The recent debate between Buterin and the Binance CEO has come at a time when the Ether (ETH) price, Ethereum’s native token, dropped to a 16-month low of $167.71 (on September 11th).
Although the Ether price has now recovered, as its currently trading at $212.60 according to data from CryptoCompare, there are a number of factors now that may have contributed to its sharp price decline. One of the main (possible) reasons is that crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX recently introduced a new swap product that allows traders to easily short Ether.
Moreover, crypto exchange Bitfinex recently revealed that outstanding short interest in Ether has reached a record 240,000 ETH.
