The CEO and chief investment officer of Soros Fund, Dawn Fitzpatrick, has revealed in an interview she believes cryptocurrencies have already gone mainstream and are “here to stay.” Fitzpatrick suggested Ethereum ($ETH) is set to “gain traction” over Bitcoin ($BTC).

Speaking to Bloomberg, the CIO of the $6.5 billion family office noted that crypto has already gone mainstream and is here to stay, even amid a looming global recession. She said:

[Crypto] is here to stay. I think it’s gone mainstream. Fidelity just announced you can put it in your 401(k).

To Fitzpatrick, however, climate impact is “going to become increasingly in focus” and as such, she believes “Ethereum is likely to gain some traction over Bitcoin.” The CIO’s comments come as the smart contract blockchain moves away from Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.

This week, Ethereum’s only Proof-of-Work testnet, Ropsten, launched its Proof-of-Stake Beacon chain, with a merge between both platforms expected on June 8. The launch brings Ethereum one step closer to its move to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm in what’s referred to as the “Merge.”

The Ropsten Testnet was created in 2016 and is seen as one of the best replications of the Ethereum mainnet. Its resemblance allows developers to conduct realistic tests on it before implementing changes to the Ethereum network.

The Ethereum mainnet merge is expected to occur between September and October of this year, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, although some developers have suggested it could come as soon as August.

During her interview, Fitzpatrick also suggested that markets may be wrong on how they’re pricing in a looming recession, explaining that she sees U.S. consumers as being in an “extraordinarily” good shape while the economy has some “shock absorbers built-in.”

The CIO noted that the world isn’t going to avoid a recession, but rather that it’ll be “further out than people expect.” She noted investors are pricing the recession “fairly soon,” with some markets expecting it as early as next year.

As CryptoGlobe reported, last year Fitzpatrick revealed that the Soros Fund holds “some” bitcoin and was predicting the flagship cryptocurrency would go mainstream. She saw BTC surpassing the $50,000 mark as a “really interesting thing.”

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The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.

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