What is behind Wall Street’s renewed interest in Bitcoin and other cryptos?

Khurram Shroff, Chairman of IBC, or International Blockchain Consulting Group, believed that cryptocurrencies could replace bullion in the future. Speaking about Wall Street’s “renewed interest” in crypto markets, the Dubai-based executive also believed that Bitcoin’s scarcity “helped maintain buoyancy” in such markets. Shroff said in a report: 

Decentralized cryptocurrencies are sparking renewed interest on Wall Street, which seemed improbable just a year ago. 

The entrepreneur holds an estimated one million BTC, the largest amount of Bitcoin in the region. He further said: 

Since Bitcoin supply is capped at 21 million, it helped maintain buoyancy in the crypto market, when bullion markets cracked under pressure.

On 21 November, Shroff’s IBC group invested $10 million in ETH 2.0 staking, in order to support the launch of Ethereum’s upgrade. With regard to the investment, Shroff believed that blockchain technology would transform all transactions.

He claimed that Ethereum 2’s distributed consensus model would make way for innovation and explained that since the Proof-of-Stake model for Ethereum 2.0 does not require large server farms, this would be more eco-friendly. He added: 

This is the crypto market’s way of showing how capable it is to adapt to the ever-evolving needs of the contemporary world.

Additionally, Shroff called transparency “the cornerstone of blockchain” and said that such technology would have a positive impact on United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) economy: 

Widespread application [of blockchain technology] at the national level, is conducive to people-centric governance and financial democratization, which will play a pivotal role in accelerating UAE’s transition into a knowledge-based economy. 

To date, UAE has launched two approaches dubbed Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021 and Dubai Blockchain Strategy to aid the adoption of blockchain technology, especially to conduct transactions.  The Emirates Blockchain Strategy 2021 is said to transform “50 percent of government transactions into the blockchain platform” by next year. Dubai Blockchain Strategy, on the other hand, is supposed to “power” the city of Dubai “fully” by blockchain.