Finansinspektionen recently went out and warned Swedish small savers to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Too risky, the authority believes.

The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also repeated the other day her advice against the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, whose price can go up and down very sharply.

There is no shortage of heavy names that raise the finger of warning, but it does not prevent small savers and now even heavier financial institutions from entering the race.

The world's largest asset manager, Blackrock, has opened up to invest in Bitcoin.

Tesla has invested in it, Paypal has opened up for trading with it and commercial banks such as JP Morgan and Citi have now also changed sides on the issue of cryptocurrencies.

- The biggest driving force right now is the increased institutional interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

From, for example, hedge funds and pension funds that move capital there, says crypto expert Sean Steinsmith, professor at Lehman College in New York.

More and more people are prepared to take increasing risks

Why are cryptocurrencies becoming mainstream, despite all the warnings that it's the biggest bubble of all time?

Advocates would say that skeptics have finally realized the greatness of digital, decentralized, private, currencies.

But another explanation is that more and more people are prepared to take increasing risks with their money.

The record low interest rate has caught fire on the stock market, and now they are looking even further out on the risk / return front.

The new, digital, the gold

Another explanation is fear of inflation.

That the huge Corona support packages that are financed with "newly printed" central bank money will end up with consumer prices rising, so that the value of the traditional currencies will be eroded.

In such situations, many investors tend to seek gold.

And in the cryptocurrency world, people talk about Bitcoin as the new, digital, gold.

But that reasoning does not buy Daniel Aronoff, who is researching cryptocurrencies at MIT in Boston.


- It feels more reasonable to choose something that has had a relatively stable value for thousands of years, instead of something that has only been around for ten years, he says.

So you think gold continues to be "gold"?


- It has been so for 2000 years, so it is at least a safer choice.