BITCOIN IS NOW MORE VALUE THAN DISNEY AND MCDONALD'S - FOR A FAMOUS TRADER, "IT COULD END HARDLY"

The price of Bitcoin is now close to the $ 10,000 threshold, after breaking new historical records.

Bitcoin overtakes Disney and McDonald's

The price of the BTC has reached almost $ 9800 this morning, 09h44 French time, according to data provided by Coinmarketcap.

The total value of the 16.7 million Bitcoins in circulation now exceeds 160 billion dollars (and even if, as we told you in this article, some BTC were probably lost along the way).

The capitalization of Bitcoin now exceeds that of large companies like McDonald's (136 billion dollars), IBM (140 billion), Disney (155 billion), or General Electric (158 billion):

A rise that worries some observers

But while this rise is proving enthusiastic by many investors, some observers have not shared this concern - and seem to believe it is a speculative bubble ready to explode.

Art Cashin "Bitcoin has become 'parabolic' - in general, it does not end well," CNBC's famous trader Art Cashin told CNBC.

"I think we are currently in a phase of 'fear-of-missing-out'" he added, referring to the "fomo" syndrome, which is pushing some investors to rush into Bitcoin, fearing that its price does not increase too much.

"I think there is some concern. I am told - and take it with the utmost caution - that this movement is worrying some people in the Federal Reserve, "he said.

Mr. Cashin explained that some wondered whether Bitcoin, whose price has risen by more than 950%, was likely to "disrupt" the money markets. "It is not important enough yet," he explained. "But it is certain that its capitalization is changing."

"A huge speculative bubble"

Neil WilsonNeil Wilson, an analyst at ETX Capital, shared his views on the rise in an interview with reporters at The Guardian.

"Rather a commodity or currency, owning Bitcoins means holding shares of a company, which will never issue more than 21 million shares, and will never pay a penny of a dividend," he said. .

"The only reason it's worth it is because another person is ready to give you even more money to get it - a person even more stupid than you ['greater fool']. Deprived of any intrinsic value, it is difficult to see anything other than a gigantic speculative bubble, "he added.

This increase appears to be partly due to the potential arrival of new institutional investors, who will be able to buy Bitcoin futures through the CME Group's trading platform.

And Bitcoin is not the only one to reach new historical records. The price of Ether, the second cryptocurrency in terms of capitalization, flirted this morning with the bar of 500 dollars, while its price amounted to about 300 dollars there are a fortnight.

At the same time, the total value of all the cryptocurrencies last night, for the first time, exceeded the symbolic threshold of $ 300 billion - an increase of more than 200% since June 2017.