Dr. Doom: Ethereum Still a Long Way From $0, Its True “Fundamental Value”

Nick Chong

5 years ago

3 mins read

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Well, well, well, Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini is back to bash crypto again, just in time for Thanksgiving no less. This time, he’s targeting Ethereum. And like his attempts to criticize Bitcoin, he is sure that ETH will be hitting $0 apiece in the long run.

Dr. Doom Lambasts Ethereum

If you’ve followed this space at all over the past few years, you’ve likely heard the name “Nouriel Roubini” a few times. Roubini, who has been lovingly dubbed “Dr. Doom” by media over his skepticism of countless financial markets, is a skeptic of Bitcoin, and has been for a handful of years now.

In articles, Dr. Doom has retorted to his haters that Bitcoin “has given rise to an entirely new criminal industry, comprising unregulated offshore exchanges, paid propagandists, and an army of scammers looking to fleece retail investors.”

Apparently, his hate for Bitcoin extends to Ethereum. Roubini remarked in a recent tweet that while Ethereum is already 90% down from its peak of $1,400 and is “in free fall” closing in on its 2018 low, it remains a “long way from $0, which is its fundamental value.” He even went as far as to say that the value of ETH may actually be “negative,” given all the toxic externalities of energy waste and pollution that its mining generates.”

Crypto-Apocalypse: Ethereum down 90% from the peak, in free fall and now close to the 2018 low. Still a long way from zero that is its fundamental value. Actually it is worth negative given all the toxic externalities of energy waste and pollution that its mining generates

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) November 27, 2019

A $0 ETH, Really?

While Roubini thinks that Ethereum’s fair value is closer to $0 than $1,000, the project has undoubtedly seen some strong fundamental developments over recent weeks and months.

Banco Santander, a Spanish bank that is the world’s 16th largest banking institution, earlier this year issued the first “end-to-end blockchain bond” transaction using Ethereum. This meant that Santander using only Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens to settle a $20 million debt issuance, seemingly a world-first.
Fortune revealed earlier this month that Compound, an Ethereum-based decentralized finance platform that allows users to lend out and borrow assets like ETH itself, USD Coin, Basic Attention Token, and 0x — has secured a $25 million worth of investments from Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto, Paradigm, Bain Capital Ventures, and Polychain Capital.
Ethereum’s long-awaited Istanbul hard fork is slated to take place on December 4th, during the blockchain’s block 9069000. The Istanbul hard fork will introduce six key code changes to the blockchain.
The cryptocurrency may soon get its own futures market, which should catalyze institutions to invest in the market. Earlier this year in October, the new CFTC chairman, Heath Tarbert, remarked at the Yahoo! Finance All Market Summit that he believes Ethereum isn’t a security. “We’ve been very clear on bitcoin: bitcoin is a commodity. We haven’t said anything about ether – until now… It is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity,” he said, according to this report. Then, Heath added in a chat at DC Fintech Week a few weeks later that he believes that Ethereum futures are likely to come to market within the next six to 12 months.

Nick Chong

I am a writer who has been following Bitcoin for years now. My insights and interviews have been featured in leading publications in the industry such as LongHash and Decrypt. I own a small amount of Bitcoin.